A Rip In The Gate
by Is-Iz
Summary: The gate has been closed for several years, and will probably never open again. But that all changes when a small, temporary rip is created from both sides, leaving one child to be drawn into the others world. What does Dante want with them?
1. Coming out of the rip

Hiya everybody! (Hi Dr. Nick...) Yeah, that was a bad joke but oh well. Anyway, this is my first FMA Fanfic, so I hope to god it satisfies.

A bit of a note: This fic takes place after the movie Fullmetal Alchemist Conqueror of Shamballa. Quite a few years after it actually. I won't say a definite number, but it'd have to be at least fourteen years. This story doesn't primarily focus around the original characters of FMA (Ed, Al, Winry etc) but lets see if you can figure out the deal with the two main characters. Quite obvious actually. Anyway, I'm going to put a summary in incase it doesn't fit when I type it up.

Summary: The gate has been closed for several years, and probably never open again. But that all changes when a small, temporary rip is created from both sides, drawing one child into the others world. Afraid and confused, the two must try to hide the secret and figure out what exactly happened.

* * *

At eleven o'clock at night a bright and heavenly light showed itself, and coming out of it, a small girl who could not have been any older than twelve, which was actually her age, had emerged from the light. She wasn't entirely sure what had happened; she had just done what she had seen in pictures and what she could read.

The girl, now having fully exited the light, stepped down unusually lightly and softly lowered herself down onto her knees. She had not even noticed that she had done so. She hadn't noticed anything. Instead, she was too busy trying to figure out what had happened.

She had been drawing what her uncle had shown her, while her sister had watched her from the corner of a single, cautious eye. And once she had finished drawing… She didn't know. And it was just as well since her thoughts were interrupted by speech otherwise the girl would have sat there, for an eternity, trying to figure out what had happened.

"Who are you?" a voice asked. The girl looked up and saw a boy, who was about the same age as her sister; and even looked a bit like her too! Or at least what she could make out from the poor lighting. The girl just stared blankly at him.

"Uuh, I'm…" the girl said slowly. "Um, my name is--Hey! Why should I answer to you?"

The girl now stood up on her feet and pointed an accusing finger at the boy, who stood about a head higher than her.

"What did you do to me?!" the girl demanded. The boy gave her an unreadable look (from what she could see anyway), before looking down at the ground they were standing on. The picture on the floor made the girl gasp; it was a bigger version of what she had drawn. It looked exactly like it.Even in the light of the night, she could still make out every little detail.

Feeling complete confusion, the girl looked at the boy fiercely.

"What did you do to me?!"

"I done nothing," the boy said, with far less aggression than the girl. In fact he sounded a bit scared.

"Then why am I here?!"

"But…" the boy said, his voice starting to shake. "I… I was just seeing what would happen… I mean, it shouldn't have worked…"

The girl's expression drained it's anger and returned to a blank look as she asked, rather dumbly, "What shouldn't have worked?"

"I don't know," the boy's voice broke and he took a couple of deep breaths before adding. "I don't know what I done."

The girl stepped back a bit, looking down at the picture on the floor. To her, it was just a plain, prettily decorated circle. Nothing else. But obviously, it meant something more to the boy since his eyes were now glancing over it furiously in hope of finding an answer and she could hear him trying to breathe slower and lighter; since his breathing was fast and heavy. If the girl had been bothered to think about it, she would have realised that he was spooked.

"What is it?" the girl asked, not looking up since she was still staring at the drawing on the floor. She didn't need to say what 'it' was, since the boy knew that she was talking about the drawing. But he did look up at her with a look that would have fitted him as if he saw a pink unicorn skip merrily by.

"You-you don't know what this is?" the boy asked, slightly motioning towards the floor with his hand. Seeing the girl shake her head, he said, "It's an Alchemic circle. You know what that is, right?"

"My uncle told me stories about them," the girl answered, not knowing quite where the answer came from and was speaking of her uncle with a fond voice. She had grown more attached to him over the past few months. "Along with a lot of other things."

The boy just looked at the girl, still in a bit of shock over what had happened. He took a good, long ten seconds before he shook his head and spoke.

"Here, I'll take you inside the house," the boy said quickly, though, not entirely that confident. "I'll get you some food."

"Okay."

The girl followed the boy out the shed's door and once she was outside in the night she felt a small chill go up her neck so she caught up with the boy hurriedly. This placed didn't look like the city that she used to live in, or much like the towns and villages that she had lived in. This place barely had any houses at all. But as soon as she thought that, she had an empty feeling in her stomach that was asking for food.

Finally, the boy asked, "So what's your name?"

"Oh, uh," he had caught the girl by surprise by asking a question but she was quick to regain herself and answer. "My name's Wilhelmina. You can call me Will or Willie if you want. And who are you?"

"My name's Edison," the boy answered, more readily than Wilhelmina had. "You can call me Ed if you want. Or Eddie, I don't mind."

Edison opened the door quietly, ushering Wilhelmina to go inside quickly, which she did. He took hold of her wrist and lead her through the house that was darkened by the night. He knew his way around by heart because of the many times he had snuck around at night without being caught by his mother. Finally, they had reached a room where Edison let go of Wilhelmina's hand and whispered to her to stay still while he got her a drink. Wilhelmina just silently nodded, trying once again to recount what had happened.

"Drink," Edison simply said, putting a cold mug in Wilhelmina's hands. Even though she couldn't see that well, her mouth managed to find the mug and she took a big sip of the drink before spitting it out onto Edison.

"Yuck…"

"You didn't have to spit it on me," Edison grumbled before taking the mug back since Wilhelmina was holding it out to him. "Was it off?"

"No," Wilhelmina said. "I just don't like milk. Apparently I'm allergic to it too, my family says."

"Well, do you want water then?"

"Nah, I'll pass. The mug will have bits of milk in it anyway. It flakes up in water and contaminates it."

There was a moments silence as Edison thought what he was going to do with Wilhelmina, whereas Wilhelmina was trying to figure out what had happened to her. Neither of them could quite figure it out and both of them also felt quite tired. Wilhelmina actually found her head nodding once of twice, but it wasn't until she let out an unexpected yawn that the silence broke and Edison looked at her, having lost what he was thinking about.

"Are you tired?" Edison asked, even thought the answer was obvious.

"Mmm," was all Wilhelmina could manage to reply with as she rubbed one eye. She felt Edison take hold of the other hand and start to pull her through the house and up some stairs before he lead her to a room. He didn't speak until the door was closed tightly.

"I'll get you couple of blankets," Edison said, leaving Wilhelmina to stand and wait in the dark, fighting off the sleep until three sheets were laid down on the floor by her.

"My bed?" Wilhelmina asked, half-asleep. The tiredness had caught up on her a lot more than it had on Edison who told her that she could sleep on two sheets and have the third over her, to keep her warm. Wilhelmina didn't really care or listen and when she finally lay down on the sheets, she fell asleep immediately.

Edison did the same thing, but not before looking up at the stars: a particular line of them that probably was what had helped him even though he hadn't intended this to happen.

* * *

"This is all your fault!" Grethel shouted, only just refraining herself from swearing at the top of her voice. "If you hadn't of told Willie so many stories she wouldn't have disappeared like that!"

Grethel had been enjoying the book that she was reading, although her eyes kept wandering over to the window which had sat by her chair, looking out and keeping alert as they always did. But it didn't do any good since what had happened was inside the house; inside the room she was in, in fact.

Grethel's younger sister, Willie, had been copying some pictures that their uncle had drawn for her. Grethel, herself, had no interest in their uncle's stories and pictures that he drew. Even when their father joined in, Grethel still paid no attention to them and occupied herself by reading, But the stories had wandered over to her ears since she was actually listening to what was being said and occasionally peered over her book to see the pictures.

But she utterly loathed them now.

Grethel had told Willie that she'd get in trouble for drawing on the floor, but Grethel had no compassion for the building that was their home at the time and didn't really care if Willie drew on it or not. What had nagged at the mind, though, was the fact that Willie was acting as if she was one of the characters in the stories her uncle had told her. Of course, Grethel didn't think too much of it.

Until a light started to glow form Willie's drawing on the floor.

"Willie…" Grethel had said with a warning tone, that did show a bit of fear. "What is…"

But Willie couldn't hear her older sister. She was too caught up in awe at the many colourful lights flying all over the place. She started to pretend that they were magical bird-beings whose souls she had freed.

Until the colours started to go dark and decided to change their direction; aiming themselves at Willie. Grethel, who had watched this all without a word or movement, finally stood up and tried to run over to her sister. But… By the time she got there, the light had already wrapped itself around the smaller girl and sucked her into nothing.

The last thing Grethel had seen was Willie smiling at her.

"Listen here," an outraged Grethel announced with much anger. "If you don't bring her back right now, I swear I'll go to the police and say you murdered her!"

The adult who was getting the ear end of Grethel's rage was the uncle that Willie had become more attached to over the last few months. Unfortunately for him, Grethel had seemed to forget that he had been nowhere near the room when Willie disappeared when she did. But all he could do was look at the ground, remembering the small girl. He did blame himself in a way.

After all, it was him who taught Willie how to draw alchemic circles, due to her insistence.

* * *

End of Chpater 1. You like? Yes, it is a bit short, but rest assured, the next one is indeed longer. Anyway, feel open to tell me what yout think and give out any constructive criticism. And takes guesses of course. Guessing is fun. 


	2. Staying hidden

**And here is the second chapter! Personally, I have realised that it is a bit boring. I did do my best to put some jokes in there (well not my best > ) but this chapter kinda sets the scene for the next one. This chapter also describes Edisons's and Wilhelmina's appearance and kinda has a look at how they act and all.**

**And thank you Sasharu for the review; it was very much appreciated! Sorry, but Grethel doesn't appear in this chapter. However, she does in the next.**

**DISCLAIMER (since I never did one before): I do NOT own Fullmetal Alchemist/Hagane no Renkinjutsushi. Not the characters, plots, themes etc. BUT I do own Edison,Wilhelmina and Grethel. My creationsmine**

* * *

Edison slowly awoke to the sound of his mother calling him down from breakfast. How long had he slept in for? Judging from the time on the clock, half an hour at least. No wonder his mother was calling to him and coming up the stairs. Wait…

Edison shot up out of bed, now fully awake and darting his head around in worry. He heard his mother reach the top of the stairs and he saw Wilhelmina still asleep, peacefully, on the sheets. Her long, golden hair fell all over the place and had obviously not been washed in a day or two. Her face wasn't as soft looking at the other girls Edison had seen, but was sharp and a bit unnerving. He could already imagine how scary the girl could look if she ever got angry. She also wore a funny, dirty, long and plum coloured dress that Edison had never seen before. She would surely stand out against anyone and everyone.

Well… it was a rude awakening or getting in huge trouble, so of course Edison chose to jump off his bed into a position where he could shove the sleeping girl under his bed.

Wilhelmina woke with a startle and would have let out a terrified gasp or yell for help if Edison hadn't warned her with a, "Sssh…"

Wilhelmina was about to ask, no, _demand_ from him what he meant by that when she heard the door open and saw a pair of feet in sandals enter the room. Upon seeing the unknown feet, Wilhelmina checked that she was completely hidden and breathed slowly… Slowly... And ignored a piece of fluff that was trying to go up her nose

"Sleeping in late again?" the unnamed person, Wilhelmina now realised was a woman, asked. "Don't tell me you were up reading again."

Edison just gave out a nervous laugh and said, "Yeah, I guess so."

"Well hurry and come down for your breakfast," the woman said, sounding a bit amused. "We only got a few more days before we have to go back to Rush Valley. A shame really; I enjoy time off."

Wilhelmina was getting bored with the conversation and didn't really listen to the rest of it, but instead wondered why she had to hide from this woman. The woman sounded friendly enough. And it was something in her voice, like there was something in Edison's, that made her automatically trust her without having to see her face. Wilhelmina wanted to jump out from under the bed and tell the woman that she was there.

Luckily, Wilhelmina regained control over herself and resisted the very odd urge that had just run through her mind.

And where on earth was this "Rush Valley"? Wilhelmina had never heard of it. Then again, this entire place had an odd, foreign feeling to it. How unusual Wilhelmina thought this all was.

Finally, the lady left and Wilhelmina heard Edison take a few deep breaths before he sat down on the bed, making it touch Wilhelmina's back and making her give out an, "Ah!" in surprise. Immediately, Edison jumped off the bed and crouched down on the floor, his eyes level with Wilhelmina.

"What was that for?" Wilhelmina asked as she crawled out from under the bed, flicking a bit of stray dust off her nose. There was plenty of it under the bed.

"Sorry," he apologised. "I forgot you were there."

"Not that! Why did you shove me into the Dust Kingdom? One tried to make a home in my nose!"

Edison helped Wilhelmina stand up, but didn't directly answer her. Instead, he looked at the ceiling as if he was expecting it to tell him what to say. It wasn't until Wilhelmina gave him a slight nudge and a hard one that he looked at her.

"Well, uh--"

"Oh my..!" Wilhelmina exclaimed upon having a proper look at Edison now. "You look like--"

"Ssh! Do you want to be found out?"

"But you look like her!"

"Who?"

"My sister! Grethel!"

It was true. Edison and Grethel both had light blonde hair, although Edison's was obviously shorter since he was a boy. But the two also had the same light, blue eyes and Wilhelmina would even dare to say that the two were the exact same height and maybe even weight! Wilhelmina was so shocked and confused with mixed emotions that she fell over backwards, creating a loud thud.

"Are you okay up there?!" the woman called form downstairs.

"Yeah!" Edison called back. "Just dropped something!"

Edison, once again, helped Wilhelmina stand up, which proved a bit different than before since now Wilhelmina was looking at him with a confused look. After a long pause, she asked, rather dumbly,

"Are you my sister?"

"I'm not a girl," Edison replied, surprisingly calmly. "Now drop it."

Wilhelmina gave a nod of submission but soon opened her mouth again with a different question.

"So why did you shove me under your bed?" Wilhelmina asked. "It's not nice manners to a girl you know."

"Uh…I…"

"Take your time answering."

Edison couldn't tell if Wilhelmina meant it or if she was being impatient. It seemed to be the first of the two since she started to look around Edison's room as if she was an inspector. It did feel a bit weird having a stranger looking at his belongings, especially a girl, but Edison was too busy trying to think how he'd explain to Wilhelmina what had happened.

"Wow, I've never seen photos with colour before," Wilhelmina said with awe at a few photos that had been tossed on the wall and around Edison's desk. And there were a great plenty of them. "They are photos aren't they?"

"Yeah," Edison said, still trying to figure out what he'd say to Wilhelmina exactly. She was clearly not from around here; especially if he had brought her from somewhere else. He was only half listening to the comments from Wilhelmina about the photos; well, he wasn't listening at all. His attention was only caught when he heard his mother walking up the stairs again. Edison gasped, realising that he had forgotten that his breakfast was waiting for him downstairs.

"You okay in there Ed?" his mother asked. Edison used one hand to cover Wilhelmina's mouth and the other to drag her over to the wardrobe; in case his mother decided to come in.

"Yeah," Edison hastily replied. "Just having trouble with my clothes. I think I need some new ones."

"You want any help?"

"No! I'm okay!"

"…If you say so…"

Edison waited til he could hear his mothers muttering no more and her footsteps moving downstairs. When she had reached the bottom, he let out a sigh. Only to have Wilhelmina open and close her jaw oddly. He looked at his hand, which was covering her mouth and then realised that she was trying to bite him. Giving a small yelp of surprise, Edison withdrew his hand.

"What are you? A piranha?" Edison asked rhetorically while rubbing his hand on his pyjama top, even though Wilhelmina hadn't been able to bite him.

"I've got to go down and eat my breakfast," Edison said, as he opened up the door, deciding to leave his pyjamas on. "I'll bring you something up later. Now don't move from here, Wilhelmina. Stay."

Even though he was in the process of closing his bedroom door, Edison still heard Wilhelmina say to him,

"What am I? Your dog?"

* * *

Wilhelmina found the next two days very, _very _boring. The only exciting times were the evening when she and Edison got to talk. The first night, she had pestered him about what had happened, why she was here, but soon gave it up since Edison could never seem to manage an answer. But he did seem interested in where Wilhelmina came from; and she gladly told him. She was happy to be able to talk to someone new. Especially someone who didn't know about the war.

"I can't believe you've never heard of it, honestly," Wilhelmina admitted, taking a bite out of her apple with her already near full mouth. She was happy to eat anything that Edison brought here, even though she was longing for something other than foods she could only snack on. "It's what the entire world is talking about I think. I can't say I really know; I've never been that interested in it at all. Was never really my concern. But both my parents got pulled into it you see, and my uncle has to look after me and my sister…"

Wilhelmina spent the rest of the evening telling Edison about what she knew of the war (which wasn't much at all, so she, wanting to impress, made some of it up) until Edison heard his mother come up the stairs. Wilhelmina was already comfortably sitting inside the wardrobe, using Edison's few coats as cushions, by the time Edison's mother came in and wished him goodnight. After that, Wilhelmina crept out of the wardrobe carefully and Edison gave her the sheets she had had the last night. After saying goodnight, the two promptly fell asleep.

Wilhelmina spent the day having a nosy through Edison's belongings, particularly intrigued with the photos since they were in colour. And the people in them reminded her of people she knew. They gave her a sort of warm and comforting feeling. She never let Edison in on the fact that she was going through his stuff, or else he might think she was rude and didn't respect his privacy. That evening didn't prove that much exciting for Wilhelmina either, since Edison came up later than before and said that he couldn't grab any food for her tonight and she'd have to wait until the morning. Feeling quite grumpy at this, since she was hungry, Wilhelmina went to sleep immediately without returning the goodnight.

It wasn't until the following evening that Wilhelmina had a proper conversation with Edison. She asked what he done all day and he said he helped his mum with making automail. Curious, Wilhelmina let Edison explain. Apparently, automail were fake limbs except that they were metal and were joined to something in the body, which made them act like a real limb. Although she was interested, Wilhelmina didn't quite understand it and just pretended to. The only thing that she could say she remembered properly was that Edison and his mother were making some that people had ordered while they were on a break. And soon they were going to have to go to a place called Rush Valley to resume their work there.

"We're gonna have to sneak you along somehow," Edison said, trying to scratch dirt or something like it out of his fingernails. He hadn't had a proper wash yet. "I'm not sure how though. Got any ideas?"

"What do you mean 'sneak'?" Wilhelmina asked. "Can't you just hurry up and tell your mum that you brought me here, somehow, so I don't stay cramped in a room all day?"

"Well what would I say?" Edison inquired and said with a bit of a laugh. "Hey mum, this girl just magically appeared in the garage out of a bright light. She'll really believe that."

"Make something up then."

"Like what?"

"Oh, I wouldn't know--"

Wilhelmina fell quiet as Edison heard his mother start to walk up the stairs. As she had for the past few nights, Wilhelmina crept quietly into the wardrobe while Edison's mother came in to wish her son goodnight. Wilhelmina would have done as usual, sat around and look at the wardrobe's wall, but the conversation between mother and son caught her attention.

"You sounded like you were talking to someone Ed," his mother said rather sternly. It sounded more like a true statement than a guess. Wilhelmina peered out a gap that allowed her to see through. Not that it did much good since she couldn't see Edison's mother. But she could see the side of Edison's face and saw that he was looking very nervous.

"I wasn't talking to anyone," Edison said quickly, his eyes darting to the ceiling, and everywhere else, for an answer. "I was, uh, reading aloud. From those books."

There was a bit of silence, which annoyed Wilhelmina since she wanted to know if she had to hand herself over or not. And she was already losing the feeling in one leg because of the odd way she was sitting on it.

"Speaking of those books, when do you have to return them?" his mother asked. Wilhelmina saw Edison's expression return to normal, as if he had forgotten all about Wilhelmina. Wilhelmina felt a slight annoyance at the possibility of being forgotten.

"I'm not sure…" There was another, though shorter, silence. Then Wilhelmina saw a smile form on Edison's face. She had seen the smile on her sister a few times and knew that it meant that he had thought of an idea.

"Can I go and return them tomorrow?" Edison asked eagerly.

"We're going to Rush Valley tomorrow," his mother replied, but Edison's spirit didn't seem to be dampen.

"I'll go there immediately afterwards. I promise!"

"I don't know if I--"

"I've been alone in Central before. It's not scary."

Wilhelmina frowned, another place she hadn't heard of before. She zoned out of the conversation as she tried to picture this Central place, along with Rush Valley (although she couldn't manage to paint a mental image in her head). However, she kept on trying until she realised hat no one was talking and Edison opened up the wardrobe door to let her out.

"I feel like a pet," was all Wilhelmina grumbled quietly as she scrambled out. She was used to so much more freedom; she was the child that would sneak out when no one was looking and play in the streets with the other kids. She suddenly missed these games now that she thought of them, and wondered is she could convince Edison to round up a few kids to play with. They'd need six at the least.

But, judging from what Edison said next, Wilhelmina guessed that it wouldn't be happening anytime soon.

"This is perfect," Edison whispered excitedly, struggling to keep his voice low. "I sneak you on the train with me to Central and then when we go to Rush Valley, I'll say you're a homeless girl I picked up off the street!"

Wilhelmina's expression was blank for a few seconds, in which she stared blankly at the taller, older boy. Finally her expression turned to one of annoyance and made Edison have a sudden fear of her.

"Are you saying," Wilhelmina hissed through her teeth. "That I have to act like a homeless, dumb girl?!"

"I-I-I never said dumb!" Edison quickly said, in his defence, but covered his mouth up for having said that loudly. He quickly picked up a book and pointed at the ground in front of the bed, indicating for her to hide under it. It took her until she heard the door start to open; then Wilhelmina made a dive for the small area under the bed. She opened her eyes, and swung her legs and dress under, so that nothing was showing. Then she saw a dust ball that she was sure she had met the first time round. The very same one that had wanted to live in her nose. And it looked like it wanted to try a second time.

"Who were you talking to?" Edison's mother asked suspiciously. Wilhelmina was really starting to doubt that she could be hidden from this woman any longer.

"I was reading out of a book, see?" Edison said; Wilhelmina imagined him holding up a book, to emphasise what he had said. The reaction was a bit sarcastic though.

"Oh yes," his mother had said. "A book on Astronomy has the word dumb in it."

"Uh, yeah. You won't believe what you'd find in these things!"

"Get some sleep Ed," the woman's voice had become more caring now, dropping it's previous sarcastic tone. "I want you on the early train to Central."

_Ugh, _Wilhelmina thought, pulling an unseeable face_. Icky, lovey, kid-parent talk. _

Now that she thought about it, she hadn't remembered the last time anyone at all had told her to get an early nights sleep. Of course, she realised, she fell asleep earlier than anyone else anyway. A good couple of hours earlier anyway. So it wasn't until Edison told her it was okay to come out from under the bed, that she paid attention again.

"So what plan have you thought of?" Wilhelmina asked, dusting the dust off her arm. All she got though was a confused look from Edison.

"How did you know that I--"

"I told you before, you look like my sister," Wilhelmina said simply. "In other words, you look like a girl," Edison's face blushed a scarlet red colour at that comment, "and that's the look girls get when they are making a plan up."

"I do not," Edison said, slowly to add emphasis on certain parts, "look like a girl."

"Well you do now," Wilhelmina said and strategically changed the subject by asking, "So what's your plan then?"

* * *

**Ooo... Edison has a plan, eh?  
I hope you guys somewhat enjoyed that chapter, and please review. I've had three people add this story to their story alert, and only one replied. I really do want to know what the readers think of the story. Doesn't have to be a lovely review remeber, I do accept constructive criticism.**

**Oh, and Sheska appears in the next chapter. Her name is said and all. And you won't believe the chaos Wilhelmina creates when she gets carried away with--No! I can't say anymore! You'll have to wait and find out for yourselves p**


	3. Wilhelmina's Undisciplined Tongue

**Aah, sorry, sorry. I haven't updated as early as I thought. It's 'cause I've been feeling completely tired after school and couldn't bare to turn on the computer. But I'm better now so here's the next chapter.  
And thank you to those who have reviewed so far.**

**A/N: _Wilhelmina's Undisciplined Tongue _refers to the fact that she likes to fluff up the myth a bit. Feels free to make things up just to impress.**

**_DISCLAIMER (Since I don't think I've done one yet):_ I _don't_ own anything FMA. I own Edison and Wihelmina though since I created them. But if I did own FMA, I would make elements in Manga appear in the Anime. Like when Winry tried to kill Scar. Beautiful moment that was. (Good EdWin stuff too)**

* * *

Edison was sitting next to Wilhelmina on the early train to Central. The time was somewhere after nine in the morning and just before nine thirty. And Edison felt nervous. He didn't know what to say to Wilhelmina: the previous night he was trying to figure out how he was going to explain to Wilhelmina what had happened (or at least what he had figured out), but couldn't bring himself up to the task.

So, instead of striking up conversation with her, Edison just acted as if he didn't know her and had the unfortunate luck that made him sit next to a girl who had not showered or bathed in a good few days, and dressed in the most odd way.

Which was a silly idea, since there were plenty of other free seats which he could have moved to.

Edison sat there, staring at the ceiling of the train, occasionally flickering his eyes to the other passengers, who gave Wilhelmina the strangest looks, and to Wilhelmina herself. He wanted her to start up a conversation. It had to be her, since he didn't know what to talk to her about. All he could think was about telling her what he knew of what had happened; but was too afraid to. He had already had a small taste of Wilhelmina's angry side when he told her that they were gonna pretend that she was a homeless child he picked up off the street.

It was quite surprising that she had ended up agreeing with that plan.

"Hey," Wilhelmina finally spoke up after another few minutes, to prevent herself being bored. "Are there any rules I have to know in Central?"

Edison finally brought himself to look directly into the younger, scruffier girls eyes. She didn't show any hint of fear when she asked that question and there was certainly no fear in her golden eyes. It was more of a, 'Tell me so I don't get in trouble.' look and tone of voice.

"Um, well," Edison tried to say but gave up, admitting. "I dunno. I honestly don't spend time there much. I don't like it there."

"Why not?"

"Because the…" Edison's face went a bit red and his voice stopped. He felt a bit embarrassed for the reason, and whispered quietly to Wilhelmina (who barely heard him at all). "The Fuhrer and his friends tease me a lot. I think they have an inside joke about me or something."

It seemed as if smoke puffed out of Wilhelmina's nostrils and the fire rising up in her body was visible behind her eyes, as if she had been offended. It wasn't long until she demanded.

"Why would the Fuhrer tease you?! You have blue eyes and all that! And, in any case, why single _you_ out of all people?!"

There was a long, deafening silence as every person who was within hearing range turned their gazes upon Wilhelmina. She didn't seem to notice though. She started to draw back to herself and muttered something about blue eyes being safe. Edison, and everyone else, just stared at Wilhelmina, confused to what any of what she said meant.

Finally, Edison had the courage and certainty to ask, "What does blue eyes have to do with the Fuhrer?"

"Don't you know?!" Wilhelmina asked, giving Edison a look as if she was looking at a purple, scaled, monkey. Finally, she explained in a single eruption. "If you don't have blue eyes and blonde hair you die!"

No one spoke. They just all stared at Wilhelmina; some deciding that she was drunk, and the majority deciding that she was just plain insane. She certainly looked the part; unwashed, hair unbrushed and sticking out everywhere (she could have at least tied it up to look remotely neat!) and, of course, she was wearing the oddest plum coloured dress that reached down to her ankles. Oh, and she had the crazy girl look, having adopted it in her last exasperated sentence.

So… The rest of the train ride, to Edison's embarrassment, Wilhelmina was telling the other passengers, who were eager to listen (those who weren't scoffed and left, like sane people) about how it was the Jews getting killed off and only Aryans could live in the country. She even told them the many cruel ways, which she had made _all_ of them up in her mind, that the non-Aryans were punished.

"And then they lower you into a vat of a substance that no mind of man has ever conceived," Wilhelmina said. Edison could tell by her voice and her hand movements, carefully illustrating her story, that she was enjoying this attention. He, on the other hand, couldn't wait until it finished. If the word got to the Fuhrer that there was a mentally deranged girl telling lies about him, Edison had decided that he might just leave her in Central and run off to Rush Valley before anyone realised that he knew her.

But, to Edison's despair, he was too nice and responsible to leave Wilhelmina all alone in Central. She was younger than him after all, and she'd probably get eaten within a few minutes. By the Fuhrer himself if he ever heard the way she talked about him!

* * *

Oh, how glad, joyous and gay Edison was when the train ride finished and the passengers no longer had a tight enough hold of Wilhelmina to not let Edison drag her away. Now he could only hope that the Fuhrer wouldn't find out about what Wilhelmina said. No doubt the Fuhrer would use this to poke more fun at him, to Edison's disdain. 

But, for now, he was trying to make his way to the public library, eventually having to grab Wilhelmina's hand and drag her along since she seemed to be distracted by every shop she saw.

"This place is so nice!" Wilhelmina squealed in delight. "I wish I could live here! Me and my sister and my uncle and my parents could buy a house here and live here forever!"

Despite smiling at this, Edison kept his head down as he pulled Wilhelmina's wrist, now faster, since he wanted to hurry up and go somewhere where people weren't staring at him and Wilhelmina. It was making him feel nervous and uncomfortable. That's why his head was down; he was avoiding the gaze of the many onlookers that were staring and pointing at Wilhelmina and whispering about her. She was an attention magnet with her odd appearance, and her fascination by everything that she could see in Central. One would think that she had never seen it before.

Which she hadn't…

"I just can't believe it though," Wilhelmina said, dropping her cheerier voice, but gained a more puzzled one. "Why hadn't those people on the train heard all about Aryan's and all? It was like the word was foreign to them."

Edison gave out a sigh, though he could not tell what emotion was in it.

"It is a foreign word to them," Edison said calmly, hiding the fact that he was annoyed at Wilhelmina having said so much horrible things about the Fuhrer. "And it's foreign to me too. In case you haven't noticed Wilhelmina, thi--"

"Hey, it's the Rockbell kid!" a voice called from just outside the library. Edison's face lit up when a familiar person ran up to him. A woman with brown hair, who was carrying quite a lot of books, in a towwer in her arms, making Wilhelmina go, "Whoa…"

No, really. Even her sister (Fraulein Head-Always-In-A-Book) didn't read that much.

"Edison!" the woman greeted him warmly, hugging him with one arm, since the other one was miraculously holding the tower of books. "I haven't seen you for so long! How's your mum?"

"She's good," Edison said, feeling the happiest he had been all day. It was nice to have someone who was talking rubbish or not looking at the one speaking rubbish. (Meaning Wilhelmina) "And how are you, Sheska?"

"Oh, I'm great! Reading up on a few things as usual."

"Only a few things?" Wilhelmina asked in obvious disbelief. "Isn't a few less than eight?"

"Huh?" Sheska's face changed more palely, since she had just noticed Wilhelmina for the first time. She turned to Edison for guidance. "Who's your friend?"

"Oh, uh…" Edison, as usual, struggled for the words. "Um, Sheska, this is Wilhel--"

"I'm Wilhelmina, ma'am," Wilhelmina introduced herself in the most polite way she had done in her time on the other side of the gate. She probably would have used that politeness if she had the chance to meet other women too. This convinced Sheska, despite the girls odd appearance, that Wilhelmina was over all a nice girl. Regrettably, Wilhelmina added her full name in, slightly changing Sheska's opinion of the girl.

Okay, more than slightly.

"Wilhelmina Trisha Elric. It's very nice to meet you, Sheska."

Even though she held out her hand to shake, and Sheska had a free hand, Sheska just stared at Wilhelmina as if the child was a ghost. More than a million things were running through Sheska's head. _Wilhelmina. Trisha. __**Elric. **_As soon as she got over her momentary freeze, Sheska dropped all her books and gave out a scream.

"You're-you're-you're…" Sheska tried to speak, but kept tripping over herself. "Which-which one are you-you…?"

"Huh? What does that mean?" Wilhelmina asked Edison, expecting it to be some sort of code or something. Maybe a secret thing that Central people said to each other.

"Are you okay Sheska?" Edison asked, trying to calm the family friend down. "What is it--Oh no. You didn't hear what she said about the Fuhrer, did you?"

"Wh-what a-about the Fuhrer?…"

"You don't know about Aryan's either?" Wilhelmina asked before Edison could say a single thing, now holding a bit of frustration towards the local lack of knowledge and resorted to saying something that she'd usually get scolded for saying. "Well you're first on the Fuhrer's list lady. Brown hair and green eyes will get you no where."

Sheska's fit of confusion, fear and whatnot stopped instantly as she blinked at Wilhelmina.

"The Fuhrer," Sheska repeated slowly and the squeaked out, "Is going to kill me…?"

"Well you're not Aryan, so… Yeah, I guess. Not personally though. Someone else will kill you on his orders."

Edison fell over in fright at the sound of Sheska's scream, which was far louder and longer than before. Edison had squinted his eyes tight shut and covered his ears as best as he could but it didn't really work. And to make things worse, when he looked back up he saw two people that were unmistakeably in military uniforms. And it didn't end there. He heard one say to the other,

"Isn't that the girl that made those rumours on the train?"

Edison shoved his book bag off his shoulder and dropped it down and jumped up, cursing Wilhelmina's tendancy (that he had noticed on the train) to get carried away when it came to telling stories.

"Return my books for me, please Sheska," Edison said with an apologetic voice and then turned and grabbed Wilhelmina's hand tightly and started to make a run for it. Wilhelmina didn't need to be told even once. She instinctively knew that she had to run, and fast.

Actually, she started to run faster than Edison on the account that she played a lot of chasing games with her friends back home whereas Edison worked with his mother on automail and all he had done with the other kids for the past few years was talk and joke around. So he felt a bit embarrassed now that it was him who was being dragged by Wilhelmina. It hurt.

No really, it did. Her nails were digging into the skin of his wrist since she was holding on so tight. He could swear that his wrist was going to bleed soon.

"Why are we running?!" Wilhelmina called back to him. "What did they want with me?!"

"I don't know! Let me lead!"

Wilhelmina slowed down her pace carefully so she or Edison wouldn't trip and let Edison go ahead of her. Edison asked her to do this for two reasons: The first being that he was going to lead them to the train station to take the first train they could to Rush Valley. And the second reason? Well he didn't want people to see that Wilhelmina was running faster than him.

* * *

They reached the train station in a matter of a few seemingly long minutes. Edison hurried and paid for two tickets, nearly dropping the coins as he fumbled for them. Wilhelmina was hidden from the lady in the ticket booth just in case she recognised Wilhelmina as the girl that was being chased by the military and anyone else. Apparently she had struck up a lot of commotion in the city that was now escalated pretty high now. Edison was only mainly hoping that the news hadn't reached Rush Valley yet (though he did doubt that it had). 

"Hurry," Edison said quickly, taken hold of Wilhelmina's wrist again as they quickly hurried to board the train.

To Edison's delight, it was pretty much empty in this area and the train would depart in about five minutes. Also, the train ride would be a good few hours in which he could get some rest which he was absolutely certain he needed after all this 'excitement'.

So, as the train departed for Rush Valley, Edison and Wilhelmina sat in a cabin where there was no one else and, for the first time since the start of the day, Edison finally relaxed; but only fell asleep when he was certain that Wilhelmina was sleeping first and that they were absolutely safe. No one could get at them here...

* * *

However, on the other side of the gate, there was barely any relaxation from Gethel and her uncle. Over the last few days, her uncle had been trying to cram it into her head that the stories he had told Willie were not fairy tales. They. Were. _REAL._

But it was either Grethel's stubborn mind to not believe such things or her disrespect for her uncle and his brother that made her refuse to believe it was true. And when she was asked what had happened then, if her uncle's theory wasn't true, Grethel simply stated that he must have used a device or something that made a flashing light, distracting her and giving him an opportunity to kidnap Willie.

"Why would I want to kidnap my own niece?" Grethel's uncle asked, clearly insulted and hurt at the accusation.

"I don't know!" Grethel shouted, frustrated and angry (that had been built up and released continually at random ever since Willie had disappeared into the light). "You're the criminal, not me!"

"Why would you call your uncle something like that?" the uncle asked in a hurt was that would have made Grethel feel guilty if she wasn't so frustrated and angry.

"Well it makes more sense than your unbelievable story!" tears were starting to form in Grethel's eyes as she kept trying to make excuses up for why her uncle was wrong. "This is why I don't listen to them! They have deluded you and deluded Willie into thinking it was real!"

"It is real though, Grethel."

"No it's not!"

Grethel slammed the door into the bedroom that she and Willie had shared and moved her bed in front of it. She didn't want to see her uncle. She didn't want to talk to her uncle. And she certainly didn't want to hear her uncle's stupid, unreasonable explanation that Willie had drawn a _'transmutation circle' _and went through a gate or some rubbish like that. Her life was stressful enough, having to watch her every move and use her appearance as an excuse to live; making sure that she would always be seen as a true Aryan. But now that Willie had mysteriously disappeared… There was no one else to blame apart from her uncle and herself! So, of course she'd blame her uncle; she had done nothing wrong.

Grethel spent at least two hours in her room, crying, thinking and trying to tell herself that it wasn't true. Her sister had not drawn a transmutation circle and had certainly not passed into this magical land where people had robotic limbs and could use such horrible sounding magic. It was not true!

But, deep down inside, past her stubborness and every other negative aspect about her and her current emotions, Grethel had the slightest feeling that it was very well true.

There was a knock on her bedroom door and her uncle's kind voice asked her if he could come in. Grethel didn't answer but moved her bed out of the way and opened the door just enough for her to peer out at her uncle's face.

"What?" she snapped, angrily. Her mood towards him hadn't improved at all, despite the fact that she had been crying.

"I know you miss Willie a lot," her uncle started to say when Grethel slammed the door in his face. He still continued, speaking loud enough for Grethel to hear, "And you don't want to believe that it happened to her. But you heard my stories... The two brothers... The elder one was protective of the younger one, remember? You could say he gave his life for his younger brother, in the beginning."

Grethel placed her hand on the doorhandle and said, through restrained tears, "I don't see how that relates to this situat--" Grethel's voice broke and she whispered, to finish off the word, "--ion…"

"Well, they were two brothers and you and Willie are two sisters--"

"What are you trying to say?!"

"I want Willie back too," there was a pause and then the uncle continued. "And I need your permission."

Grethel swung open her bedroom door, not caring that her eyes were puffy and teary or that her face was red and wet from her crying.

"Why do you need my permission?" she asked simply, wondering if this was a trick her uncle was using to make her trust him.

"Because I need you to trust me."

* * *

**Yeah, I purposely ended it with the whole "I need you to trust me" thing, 'cause (despite being used alot) it is still somewhat dramatic. Or something like that anyway.  
Anywho, the next chapter might come late since I'm stuck on half of it. SHouldn't take me too loong to figure it out.**

**Anyway, R&R please people I need to know what you think about the story so far.**


	4. The Trainride to Rush Valley

**Once again, thank you to all that have reviewed! Even if it is only two people. **

**I actually thought that this chapter would take longer to write than it actually did. Then again, I did end up cutting some things off in my head, deciding that it was too early for things to happen.**

**Anyway, thought I'd start this chapter with the other side of the Gate, where Grethel is.**

* * *

Grethel sat down in her usual chair that she used when she read books because it was probably the most comfortable in the entire small house. She opened up a book titled, "The Works of the Brothers Grim". Usually, as you could probably tell by now, Grethel wasn't too fond of Fairy Tales but now, she had a secret desire to find out if the Fairy Tales would hold any clues to help her uncle.

Not that Grethel would ever admit to helping her uncle; her pride made sure of that.

And anyway, there was a story in here called "Hansel and Grethel". Grethel was pretty happy at that, motivating her to read that story first.

Grethel couldn't find any help in that story and flicked through many others, including: The Little Brother and Sister, The Six Swans and Cinderella before realising that it might be easier if she found a story about two sisters. Snow-White and Rose-Red seemed to be interesting, but there was nothing about Alchemy or Transmutation Circles or anything of the sort. The bear turned out to be a prince though and married Snow-White. Grethel thought that it was sweet and then remembered her task, to find clues.

Nearly two hours later, Grethel closed the book and asked herself in a mutter why she was doing this? No sooner had she done that, then she noticed that her uncle was sitting across the room reading something himself. Grethel glared at him; this was all his fault! How dare he be anywhere near her when she was so convinced of him being Willie's kidnapper!

"Did you find anything?" her uncle asked, making Grethel nearly drop her book entirely in fright.

"I don't understand what you mean," Grethel lied. "I was just reading."

"I thought that you didn't like Fairy Tales," the uncle commented, a bit teasingly. Grethel had a right mind to go over them and clip his hear for not being serious.

"Why would you make a joke when you're trying to figure out what happened to my sister?"

"I can do both at the same time. Anyway, did you read the story, 'Clever Grethel'? Apparently your mother loved that story and that's why she called you Grethel."

"Get back to work," Grethel snapped, annoyed and insulted at being compared to a greedy cook. "Talking to me will not aid you in any way at all."

* * *

As soon as Wilhelmina seemed to be asleep, Edison had allowed himself to sleep. He was exhausted and tired, so the idea of sleeping for the rest of the train ride appealed to him so much that he would have kissed it if it had a physical form. It was just too good to be true!

No, really, it was.

Edison had been asleep for not even an hour before he felt a kick to his leg, that was gentle and harsh at the same time. He associated it as one of those kicks that meant to be hard but were only allowed to be soft; leaving it kinda in the middle. Either way, it hurt. And the voice of the kicker wasn't that appealing to Edison's ears either. Sounded like a male voice. Oh well, it was enough to make Edison open up his eyes to see who had awoken him; interrupting his beautiful sleep.

"Hey kid," the military man said, Edison didn't recognise him at all but he could hardly expect to. "We've been authorised to bring you back to Central."

Edison then noticed that there was another man by the first. The second one looked more plump and a bit thick in the head. Edison knew that he could trick the plump one, but probably not the one who had woken him up.

"And why do I have to go back there?" Edison asked, already starting to plan how he was going to talk himself out of this. "You do realise that my mother--"

"I don't care who she is; you're wanted by the Fuhrer," the tall man interrupted (Edison decided that that was how he'd refer to the one who had woken up) and the plump man gave an agreeing nod.

"And we don't know why," the plump man added. "We were just given orders to retrieve you and the girl."

Edison sat up straight now and looked around hastily. He couldn't see Wilhelmina anywhere. Where was she? Had the military already captured her? Edison didn't dare to ask and the two men didn't dare to add anything about Wilhelmina's whereabouts.

"Well get up," the plump man said, taking hold of Edison's upper arm roughly and proceeded to pull him up equally, if not more, as rough. Edison gave the two men a glare.

"You do realise that if I don't get to Rush Valley today, my mother will hunt you down and--"

"Yeah, yeah, we don't care kid."

"She'd probably only attack us with laundry powder or something."

"I'm remembering that and I will tell her that you said that," Edison commented, already playing in his mind the image of his mother beating the two men to death with a metal pipe or something along those lines. Oh, how the image appealed to him at the moment. Edison didn't really like being awoken by being kicked, let alone being called up to the Fuhrer, who found one way or another at poking fun at him; even if it was rather repetitive of him.

"I don't get it," Edison suddenly said, sounding a bit concerned. "Why does the Fuhrer always keep his men out of the dark. You two should at least know why you're taking me to--"

"We know, kid," the skinny man said sharply as the plump one nudged Edison hard to tell him to be quiet.

"But you just said that you didn't--"

"We don't, we just have a fair idea: you're the one that was with that kid, eh? The one spreading those rumours."

"Don't worry kid," the plump man added. "One of our men is already taking your friend to the Fuhrer. Left about half an hour ago. You're friend was a lot harder to catch than you, mind you; we had to end up cuffing her."

Edison felt guilty that Wilhelmina had been caught half an hour ago while he was sleeping. It was her responsibility to hide her from the military, wasn't it? After all, she wasn't from around here. Not a single bit. And the thought of her being handcuffed! Edison knew that she was annoyed at being confined to his bedroom the entire time he had hidden her, so he could only imagine how much she'd hate to have metal rings tightened around her wrists.

Edison could only hope now that Wilhelmina wouldn't say or do anything stupid until he was with her.

That thought actually only made him worry more.

* * *

It had only taken half an hour for someone to find Wilhelmina on the train to Rush Valley and so it only took half an hour before Wilhelmina was back in Central; now not handcuffed since she was deeply interested, and confused, as to why the Fuhrer wanted to speak to her. Add another hour on and Wilhelmina was in a rich looking building had been fed a few sandwiches (since she had, at one time, complained that she was hungry, to annoy her capturers) and was now refusing to have a shower and dress in some clothes which Wilhelmina did see people wear, but thought, herself, that they were too odd and was perfectly content with her dirty, smelly and overall unpresentable dress. She also refused to brush her hair or at least tie it up to hide the few, very obvious knots that it had grown over the last few days. But Wilhlemina focused more on the clothing.

"I really don't see how the women here can wear male items of clothing," Wilhelmina said to the officer who had taken her off the train and brought her here. He had tried and tried, but the girl wouldn't clean herself up. "It is so odd and unladylike that I'm afraid I have to refuse. And, besides the point, I refuse to take anything that is offered freely to me."

"You took that sandwich rather freely you know," the officer said, the annoyance detected easily in his voice but the grubby girl he was talking to pretended to be oblivious to it. He was growing tired of this already and was overwhelmed with happiness when there was a knock on the door, with a lady bringing in some more food for Wilhelmina to eat, at Wilhelmina's demand. She had not counted on how hungry she'd be after a few days on a diet of apples and other snack foods. And if the food was free, why not?

"What is it?" Wilhelmina suddenly asked, pointing at something brown and sweet looking. The officer looked over and told her that it was a chocolate mousse and was halfway through adding that she'd better be thankful when Wilhelmina, after tasting a small bit on her finger, started to eat it, forgetting all manners and resorting to use her hands even though there was a spoon perfectly visible.

The sight was certainly not appealing and the officer would never look at a chocolate mousse in the same way again. So he was mightily relieved when he was told he could go as a woman walked in to talk to Wilhelmina. Wilhelmina didn't even notice the woman as she was burying her head in the bowl, licking it clean. Never in her life had she tasted something so sweet and delicious. Wilhelmina had often heard about chocolate but had never had the chance of tasting it. Her mother and sister had never seemed to have tasted it either and for some reason, her father and uncle had given them a funny look. Being a few years younger at the time, Wilhelmina had put it down to, and still had it down as: males could not understand chocolate.

And neither could Wilhelmina; she felt a buzz through herself, like she had the day a few friends of hers dared her to eat about ten lemons; which she did end up doing, later getting in trouble for eating so much.

With a cough at the start, to grab Wilhelmina's attention, the woman said, "I trust you enjoyed the food?"

Wilhelmina froze. If it was a man, Wilhelmina wouldn't have given a toss but since it was a female - an adult female - Wilhelmina felt pressured to act polite. Which was rather hard to do when your hands, face and even your dress was covered in splats of chocolate. Wilhelmina turned around in her seat, sitting up straight and crossed one leg over awkwardly, trying to appear how her mother and sister appeared when they sat down.

"Yes, I enjoyed it very much. Thank you," Wilhelmina said in a polite and smart voice. She had taken quite a habit, ever since having arrived in such a rich house, to acting and speaking as if she was smarter than she actually was.

"Good," the woman said. "I heard that you refuse to wear any clothes offered to you. Are you sure that you want to see the Fuhrer while you look so dirty…. And covered in chocolate."

"Oh no," Wilhelmina answered in a way that she thought was polite and smart. "I wouldn't want to trouble you so I'll go and see him like this."

"Are you sure that you don't want to have a look in the mirror before you say that?"

"No, no. I'm quite fine thank you."

Riza Hawkeye wasn't entirely sure why she didn't persuade this girl into making herself more presentable, but… Riza, surprisingly, couldn't be bothered. She was too anxious to hear, along with the Fuhrer, about why this girl, despite looking like a guy with a dress on now that her face was covered in chocolate, would spread such rumours about the Fuhrer. It was truly an interesting matter. Most of the personal in the military wanted to know why these rumours were started and, more importantly, if they were true.

* * *

A woman stared at her little device, happy with the answers it had given here and proceeded to tuck it in a pouch that hung around her neck. Such a device should be kept close. It would be a tragedy to let anyone else have such an item. It would be a tragedy to let anyone else knew it existed also; seeing as it had not seemed to have existed until the woman was drawn to it's whereabouts before claiming it as her own.

And what luck it was to come into possession of such an item, such a device. And not only to come into possession of such an object, but also to realise what it could do. The realisation of what this "Teller of Truths" could do.

It had lead her into discovering some other things. Like a book that explained the device and the answers to some questions that had sparked an immediate interest which lead onto a theory. A theory that would get her what she wanted.

The woman stood up and looked down at some papers and a book. The book was now closed as she had no need for it anymore, but the woman picked up the papers with her rotted hand. Now that everything up there was confirmed and everything down here was nearly set up, it was time to lure the bait into the trap…

* * *

**Guess what the bait is, guess what the trap is guess what the purpose is; I'm confident that you won't guess it straight away.  
" Nah, I'm probably being a bit confident there.**

**Anyway R&R people. And please let me know about my OC characters: are they too Mary-Sue-ish? You have to tell me as soon as they are. And tell me about the story overall. **


	5. A Demand for answers

**Wow, I sure took my time updating. It wasn't a writing thing; it was a time thing. I haven't really had that much time on the computer over the last few days, but this chapter is longer than the others, and is basically in the same scene so I hope that that makes up for it"**

**Anyway, thank you Sasharu, Katty008 and FMA lover912 for reviewing. They're much appreciated!**

**DISCLAIMER (Since I feel the need): I _don't _own anything FMA. That belongs to the wonderful Hiromu Arakawa. But I do own Wilhelmina, Edison and Grethel.**

**Note about the last chapter: I had forgotten to add that in my bog (old and dying) book of The Brothers Grimm, the tales was called Hansel and Grethel, not Hansel and Gretel. And I stuck with Grethel since it's an old looking, truthful book. Just clearing that up in case anyone thought I had conveniently changed the name of the fairy tale.**

* * *

Wilhelmina followed the lady, Riza Hawkeye, through the house. The place was clean and tidy and big, making Wilhelmina feel very out of place; being small, smelly and dirty. Her nervousness peaked even higher when she saw her reflection in a mirror that they had passed, that was sitting on a wall at the top of some stairs that were fashionably located at the entrance of the house; probably being the first thing you saw when you entered.

Wilhelmina didn't recognise the face staring back at her when she first saw her reflection. Around her mouth was covered with bits of chocolate from the mousse and even the tip of her nose had some chocolate on it. Her hair was far beyond messy and was the worse that it had ever looked; her hair would have flicked in any and every direction if it wasn't weighed down by it's length. And, to add to it, there was hints of chocolate mousse, again, in her hair. She was glad that the mirror only showed herself her face.

"Do you want to clean yourself up now?" Riza asked Wilhelmina, who looked at Riza nervously. She felt disgusted with her appearance considering she was going to speak face to face with the Fuhrer.

"No," Wilhelmina lied. "As I said before, I wouldn't want to trouble you."

Riza made a slight nod and continued to walk, with Wilhelmina making a small run to catch up to her.

"So," Wilhelmina asked. "Why are you in a military uniform?"

"Because I am part of the military," was the simple answer that Wilhelmina received. Wilhelmina nearly tripped over when she heard this, since she never really knew that females could be in the military too. When she asked Riza this, Riza answered, simply again, by stating that women have been in the military for a long time. Wilhelmina would have argued at this, but if this woman really was in the military, then of course Wilhelmina wouldn't argue.

Finally, they stopped outside a door, where Riza told Wilhelmina to wait here until she said she could come in.

The voices on the other side of the door, Wilhelmina was quick to notice, were loud and clear enough to hear if she pressed her ear against the door. Which is exactly what she had done. It wasn't long until Wilhelmina picked up on the conversation.

"Well Rockbell, your mother sounded angry on the phone," an unfamiliar voice said. "You might want to be careful."

"Shouldn't you be careful?" Wilhelmina nearly melted with joy at the sound of Edison's voice. "As far as she's concerned you abducted me off the train I was supposed to catch."

"But you were aiding a suspected drunk child with escape from the military."

"Trust me, Fuhrer, my mother has little care for military affairs unless it involves them abducting me."

So the unfamiliar voice belonged to the Fuhrer then. Wilhelmina continued to listen, eagerly, waiting for the to say why she was being chased by the military.

"Fuhrer, sir," Wilhelmina heard Riza speak, probably the clearest of the three familiar voices so far. "The girl is outside, ready to come in."

"Bring her in. We'll see if she is a homeless girl like Rockbell claims."

Wilhelmina felt an urge to run away at the moment she saw the doorknob twist. All her life, she had feared the Fuhrer and what he had done. She had lost a couple of Jewish friends because of the rules and Wilhelmina's eyes weren't blue, which scared her even more.

"You can come in now," Riza said, opening the door for Wilhelmina who looked at her eyes and saw that they weren't blue either. They were nearly the same colours as hers. The fact comforted Wilhelmina until she saw the Fuhrer himself and gave him a funny look, across the room from the doorway where she stood.

"I thought…" Wilhelmina tried to say, but looked at Riza and spoke to her instead. "I thought that I'd be seeing the Fuhrer."

"This is the Fuhrer," Riza said, giving Wilhelmina a little push forwards. Wilhelmina shook her head.

"No he isn't. He looks nothing like the Fuhrer. This one has no moustache."

"Bring her over here, Hawkeye," this Fuhrer, who wasn't the Fuhrer Wilhelmina feared, commanded the woman. After a second nudge, Wilhelmina walked over to this 'Fuhrer' and kept her head down very low, looking at the ground the entire time. She only looked up slightly when Edison held her hand. This comforted Wilhelmina to know that he was there, in case something happened.

"What is your name?" this Fuhrer asked, a bit calmly but with a tone that also reminded Wilhelmina of his authority. Wilhelmina didn't dare to look up; the Fuhrer had scared away the feeling of comfort Edison had given her.

"Uh, m-my name is…" Wilhelmina wasn't sure what made her ask what she asked next, but felt better asking it than telling this 'Fuhrer' her name. "Are you really the Fuhrer? You don't have his moustache."

Before the Fuhrer could reply, Wilhelmina felt a tight squeeze on her hand that hurt. Now she understood; if she said anything wrong, Edison would squeeze her hand tightly.

"Sorry, sir," Edison was quick to apologise for Wilhelmina. "You see, sir, she isn't from Amestris. She must be confused and mistook her Fuhrer with you, sir."

Wilhelmina dug her nails into Edison's palm and gave him a glare out of her eyes, which he caught.

"So…" Wilhelmina said, looking up at Edison and Edison only. For, as far as she was concerned, he was the only person alive apart from her. "All this time I've told stories about the Fuhrer… Told the truth about him… Everyone thought I meant someone else, and knew and didn't tell me?!"

Edison dug his nails into Wilhelmina's palm in return, now looking at her in the eyes and replying with,

"Well you didn't really shut up you know. You gave me no chance to tell you."

"Oh sure I didn't! You couldn't have slipped that in when you told me about automail, could you?"

"That's because I didn't know you--"

"Be quiet you two," the Fuhrer interrupted the two arguers with a dominant voice that he had undoubtedly perfected during his days as Fuhrer. "You're just like squabbling children."

As soon as Edison and Wilhelmina had stopped and had suddenly become interested in looking at the walls, floor and ceiling, the Fuhrer said to Wilhelmina,

"What is your name?"

"Wil-Wilhelmina, sir," Wilhelmina answered with new respect for the Fuhrer since he was one of another country.

"Your full name."

Wilhelmina took a deep, uneasy breath and looked directly a the Fuhrer. Wasn't it her full name that had made the lady with the tower of books freak out. Oh well, if the Fuhrer freaked out, it gave Wilhelmina a good opportunity to run away.

"My full name is," Wilhelmina said, taking another deep breath and said, very fast to get it over and done with, "Wilhelmina Trisha Elric."

Realisation grabbed the Fuhrer as he said dumbly, "What…?"

"Wilhelmina Trisha El--"

"What is the name of your father?!"

"Uh…" Wilhelmina felt scared at the Fuhrer's outburst, demanding her fathers name. She took a few nervous steps backwards, keeping her eyes on the Fuhrer the entire time. Edison turned back, to face Wilhelmina, and held her closer arm gently with both of his hands, slowly trying to pull her back. It didn't really comfort Wilhelmina, who was now glaring at the Fuhrer with a sudden, randomly occurring, confidence. Actually, to Edison, it looked like Wilhelmina was angry.

"And just who are you to demand things?!" Wilhelmina shouted, not daring to point a finger, since it was bad enough that she was already shouting at the head of this country. Wilhelmina would have been surprised herself, but was too busy waiting for the Fuhrer's reply.

At first, the Fuhrer had looked a bit surprised (and insulted) at this outburst, but soon his expression changed for better or for worse. Most likely the latter of the two.

There was a silence as the Fuhrer just looked at Wilhelmina with a blank look before saying, with a somewhat dry tone of voice,

"…Never mind, I think I can guess, judging from your temper."

"You listen here, Herr Fuhrer!" Wilhelmina snapped. She was annoyed and confused and felt like she had to explode. "For the first few days here I was stuck in his bedroom with no movement since he was afraid mummy was gonna find me! Then I make an idiot of myself for confusing you and my country's Fuhrer and finally! Finally! I am dragged here to be demanded at when I have not yet had a single explanation! Of course I have a temper!!!"

"An explanation?" Riza blinked and then said to Wilhelmina. "Surely you don't need much of an explanation if you're a homeless person picked up off the street."

"But I'm not!" Wilhelmina shouted, childishly, with a thump of her foot. "I don't know how I got here! I just… I just got here!"

As always, blowing off so much steam left a person tired, but left them feeling lighter; as if a heavy burden was lifted off their chest. There was no exception for Wilhelmina, she was mighty glad to have shouted at these… Ah! Wilhelmina didn't want to think; she just wanted some answers!

"What do you mean you 'just got here'?" the Fuhrer asked, sounding a bit worried and concerned, Wilhelmina would have thought if she wasn't so confused. She just closed her eyes tightly and took a step back. Her eyes felt warm and sticky; her throat was also quite dry as well, so Wilhelmina tried not to realise this so that she wouldn't start an outburst of crying.

Not that it would be crying of fear or happiness. She would be crying of confusion if she would let herself cry, which she wouldn't since Wilhelmina absolutely refused to. She couldn't cry. Wasn't allowed to. If she did, it would make her seem childish and that was the last thing she wanted. She had been brought up to act mature in the presence of someone important (even though she'd only act like that in front of females, since she felt no need to act like that in front of men who she burp as loud as) and crying was not how you done that.

"Rockbell, what happened?" the authorities voice suddenly asked, in a demanding sort of way. Wilhelmina looked up at the head of the country and realised that he only didn't sound concerned, but looked it too. Wilhelmina couldn't help but frown; had something gone wrong?

Edison was silent, while he looked up at the ceiling and then down at his feet a minute after. He was clearly uncomfortable with the question and Wilhelmina started to wonder what would make him nervous enough to start gripping the bottom of his shirt.

"I…" Edison croaked out in an attempt to answer the Fuhrer's question. "I… She…"

"Just say it," Riza said to Edison, in an attempt to encourage the words out. Wilhelmina was starting to get even more confused by the looks that were held towards Edison and the way Edison was nervously acting. There was a bit more of a long silence, where Wilhelmina finally asked,

"Why do you all look so serious? Just say it Edison! I'm getting scared here."

It was as if something in Wilhelmina's voice forced Edison to say something. As if her voice was the waves that bashed against the cliff, which was Edison's own voice. Or, probably more appropriately, a tornado that ripped houses off the land. He suddenly felt as though he had to say something; finally answer. And, in every case, he couldn't let Wilhelmina be scared.

"She's… I dunno where she came from, I honestly don't!" Edison finally said. "I just know it's not from this country; or the others I've heard of!"

"I'm from Germany," Wilhelmina said, a bit offended. "Don't you know where Germany is?"

There was a silence as the three Amestrians looked at each other and then to Wilhelmina and shook their heads; nearly making fumes come out of her head. Even she seemed more educated than them!

"That can't be all though," the Fuhrer said, facing Edison again. "What did you do?"

"I… I kinda… Well, I actually don't know," Edison admitted. "I was just mucking around - experimenting - and then she appeared from this light."

"Like a portal," Wilhelmina added, deciding it would be better to add her piece in. "It felt weird though. I felt like I weighed nothing at all."

But, Wilhelmina was unheard by the Fuhrer who was looking at Edison, with a look that said, 'Oh my god… Don't you dare say yes to the next question….'

"Rockbell," the Fuhrer addressed Edison and asked, quite simply really, "Did you use Alchemy?"

It was lucky for Edison that Wilhelmina cut him off before he could even say anything.

"Alchemy?" Wilhelmina repeated dumbly. "Do you mean Alchemy? Like 'Transmutation Circles' and being able to do stuff like that; that _Alchemy_."

"Do you know about Alchemy?" Riza asked, surprisingly being the first one able to ask Wilhelmina this question. Wilhelmina answered with a nod but added,

"But I was told it was only a story and that it would never work. I mean I've tried it and nothing ever happened."

"Elric--I mean Wilhelmina," the Fuhrer said, not saying Elric since, to him, it sounded funny addressing a girl with that name. "What was the last thing you remember doing before entering through the light?"

Wilhelmina and paused for a second, thinking, before saying, "That's easy. Dunno what time it was, but the three of us were reading one thing or another. Well, I was drawing actually."

"What were you drawing?" the Fuhrer's voice asked, more deeply interested in what Wilhelmina had to say than he had been before.

"A transmutation circle," Wilhelmina answered, as if it was the most casual and innocent thing in the world. "I always traced the ones my uncle drew me and I even made some up. Dunno which one I was drawing though."

Wilhelmina, clearly not having understood what she had done, looked over at Edison, half expecting him to comment. Instead, he looked back at her with a very, _very _shocked look. Wilhelmina looked back at the Fuhrer who seemed angry as far as Wilhelmina was concerned. She finally looked at Riza Hawkeye, who, although didn't use Alchemy, understood what it could do. She was looking at Wilhelmina with surprise. Though, her expression wasn't as dramatic as the expression of the two males.

"And what," the Fuhrer managed to say, "were you doing, Rockbell?"

"Can't you guess?" Edison asked, spreading his arms out. Wilhelmina guessed that he had been doing the same as her. It took her another few seconds of realising that Edison looked guilty and had done something wrong. And if Wilhelmina had done the same thing…

"Oh dear," Wilhelmina said, with a hint of a casual tone since she still didn't understand what was being passed through the many emotions and expressions. Then again, how could she?

* * *

**Sorry if there's a lack of action at the moment. Oh, and I referred to Roy as the Fuhrer 'cause he's only been introduced as the Fuhrer. Just clearing that up.  
Anyway; questions? Comments? Then review. Even if you're having a bone-pick at me.**


	6. The Bait for the Trap

**Thanks to all you guys who have reviewed. No, seriously, every author loves their reviews, no matter how brief it is. And yes, I still take a fair while to update but hey! That's what you love about me! gets ready to avoid thrown bricks**

**Anyway, here's Chapter 6!**

* * *

Edison knew, to a certain extent anyway, what he had done and that it was dangerous. Alchemy, in general, was dangerous. Especially since he didn't know anything about it really, apart from what he had read. Which wasn't exactly plausible anyway. And to add to the danger, he was mixing it with other ideas and theories. Why he done this, Edison would use the excuse of curiosity; which had some truth in it.

But, the one thing he had completely forgotten until now, and that the Fuhrer was now rambling on about, was the fact that to have brought over a person from the other side of this 'Gate' he would have to sacrifice something enormous. Some thing on a massive scale. Especially since Wilhelmina seemed to be in perfect condition and looked the same as what she had done on her side of the Gate; which wasn't supposed to happen at all, was it?

Edison wasn't sure what was sacrificed, and was forced beyond his ability to try to remember something that he could have possibly sacrificed, but failed to do so. Everything had appeared the same, so what had he sacrificed?

And there was also the question of what Wilhelmina sacrificed. She claimed that she had nothing on her mind but designs for Transmutation Circles. She also claimed to have not spoken to the Gate; what she meant by this puzzled Edison greatly, but he didn't question it really, since the Fuhrer seemed to understand what she meant. In fact, Wilhelmina seemed more knowledgeable than Edison about Alchemy. Which was very odd, seeing as Alchemy didn't exist in her world.

"What you two have done, on accident, is so inconceivable that I'm not sure if it's good or bad," the Fuhrer was saying. Edison was listening more than Wilhelmina who only ever took part when they were directly talking about Alchemy; everything else she was at a loss at. And anyway, she was more interested in her cup of hot chocolate and drawing Transmutation Circles on a notepad.

"For you to have brought someone over from the other side of the Gate in a perfect--" the Fuhrer was cut off by a loud burp from Wilhelmina who didn't apologise since Riza, and no other female, was there at the moment; meaning Wilhelmina gave herself permission to drop her manners and etiquette.

"I'd reconsider that word," Edison said in response to Wilhelmina's burp, but probably wasn't heard.

"And the fact that neither of you two have had any proper--Hey! What are you doing?!"

"Experimenting," Wilhelmina said with her usual casual, everything-is-normal, tone. She tore off a piece of paper and started drawing another circle.

"Don't do anything!" the Fuhrer warned with a snap, snatching the pen out of Wilhelmina's hand. "Don't draw anything! You might pull someone else in!"

"Pfft…" was Wilhelmina's reply as she folded her arms in protest. "The one place I can finally use Alchemy in and I'm not allowed to."

"The Fuhrer's right, Wilhelmina," Edison said, lazily picking up the piece of paper his friend had recently drawn on an took a quick glance at it, saying, "You could set something off on accident. Especially if you're gonna draw this." Edison held the piece of paper up to Wilhelmina so the Transmutation Circle was facing her.

"They're just circles though," Wilhelmina protested. "I wouldn't know how to make one work!"

"Still…" the Fuhrer said, having taken the paper out of Edison's hand and looking at it himself. "I wouldn't be surprised if you accidentally set something off without thinking of it. Especially if you are related to one of the Elric brothers."

"I doubt it," Wilhelmina quickly answered. "If they're from this world then how can they be living in my world."

"The same way you're living in this world, obviously," Edison commented, trying to remember who the Elrics were. He had heard their names a few times as a child and had only, in the last few minutes, realised that he had heard their names before.

"It's true," the Fuhrer added. "They ended up in your world after briefly coming here for a visit."

Wilhelmina looked at the Fuhrer, slightly glowering at him, before asking, "Are you saying that I'm related to them?"

"Yes…" Edison said sarcastically and yawned before adding. "And if you were cleaned up, you'd look just like them."

Wilhelmina put her hands under her hair and flicked it up in refusal to have herself cleaned up. She preferred being dirty like this; she felt a bit more free this way.

"You're actually right, Rockbell," the Fuhrer agreed, making Wilhelmina turn her head away in a huff. Who were these people to say who she was related to? And looked like? Such manners!

Of course, though, Wilhelmina was a bit cranky though since she hadn't gotten that much sleep at all. It was currently sometime before nine and midnight, but Wilhelmina felt as though it were only seven in the evening. It had been suggested an hour ago that she go to bed since she was younger than the others, but Wilhelmina protested that they needed her help; even if she was horrible at understanding what was going on. She had no proper understanding that she would have had to sacrifice something enormous on her side, for the Gate to have allowed her to cross over as perfectly as she had. As far as she was concerned, she had done absolutely nothing wrong. Instead, she felt rather glorified that she had crossed over the Gate. It made her feel important and mighty.

"The real question is," the Fuhere said, bringing back Wilhelmina's attention. "Is if anyone else knows what you have done."

"No one saw me," Edison said confidently. "If anyone did, it would have been my mother. And if she had, I would have been dead long ago."

"That reminds me Rockbell," the Fuhrer said, with a bit of an evil grin on his face. "She's coming here tomorrow. Do want me to get some military personnel to protect you."

"Fuhrer," Edison said, looking at the Fuhrer straight on with an, 'You're an idiot' look. "Nothing can protect anything from my mother when she's angry. And remember, it's you who abducted me off the train. It's you who needs the protection."

"Listen Rockbell, I told her that you aided a suspected drunk child in--"

"Giving you a bad name? My mum doesn't care about that stuff."

"Watch your mouth, kid!"

Wilhelmina let out a heavy and frustrated breath as she heard the two males start to argue. A few hours ago, the Fuhrer had said that it was her and Edison who had acted like squabbling children; now the role was nearly reversed.

Wilhelmina easily tired of the arguing, as entertaining as it was, and started to look out the window. She opened it and tried to spy something interesting. It all seemed dull; mainly because it was dark and Wilhelmina couldn't see well. But even with her bad eyesight, she saw a light swinging back in forth. Wilhelmina figured it was a small distance away, but watched it since there was nothing else to watch since everything was still dark and there was nothing else to see.

The light was so nice. Spherical and dancing back and forth in a swaying motion. Wilhelmina dared not to take her eyes off it.

When there's two people arguing in a room, they usually didn't notice much outside of the argument. If that weren't the case, they still would think that Wilhelmina was acting normal since she seemed to have zoned out. But, since Edison and the Fuhrer were still arguing, they failed to notice that Wilhelmina would give a subtle nod or shake of the head; or that her eyes seemed to have glazed over. Or even that in a matter of just over ten minutes she had walked carefully and quietly out of the room.

* * *

A lady stood in front of a fairly more-than-decent sized wardrobe and looked over the clothes. They were mainly beautiful dresses, but they seemed to big for her guest. Her guest, after all, wasn't entirely that big or small. But she had to find something; it was nearly a hobby for her to dress her guests up.

Yes… Guest seemed like such a deceivingly nice word. But she had to appear nice in front of the girl, if she wanted the girl to do what she wanted.

Which was nothing really. Except from staying here for a while.

* * *

Wilhelmina, in her messy state, for once walked through Central without people staring at her. Then again, there was no one to actually stare at her. Why would there be? Everyone was mostly asleep. They wouldn't notice - and some wouldn't care - that such a young girl was walking in the dark streets all by herself.

But if anyone saw her in good enough lighting, they would realise that Wilhelmina was walking very awkwardly (nearly in a limp) and that she seemed to keep looking forwards, appearing to look at nothing in particular. In fact, her pupils wouldn't exactly seem apparent.

For a good few minutes, Wilhelmina walked on her own, until she stopped and looked at what seemed to be a light on the end of a fishing line. Wilhelmina just looked up at it, but didn't try and touch it like she had wanted to. She just stood there, looking at it. This was the place right?

And before she knew it, not that she would exactly remember it, something hit Wilhelmina on the head, knocking her out cold. Before it took her of course.

* * *

"Where've you been lately, Greth?" a girl, Grethel's own age asked. Like Grethel and the other three boys, she had blue hair and blue eyes but her features seemed a bit darker. Not that it bothered her to much.

"Sorry Hanne," Grethel said apologetically to the girl. "I've just been… troubled lately."

"Really? What happened?" one of the boys asked. The tallest one, Johannes. Grethel just shook her head and the other four teenagers knew that she didn't want to tell them.

"So, have I missed anything?" Grethel asked. Hanne, Johannes and the other two boys exchanged glances. One of the boys nudged Hanne, who would have given a pout if she was a few years later.

Finally, Hanne answered solemnly with, "Marlene's gone. She was taken yesterday. Apparently her family was Jewish and-"

Hanne's voice broke off as she tried not to cry. Grethel felt sorry for Hanne since Hanne and Marlene were so close they were like sisters. The only way you could tell that they weren't related was that the two girls looked completely different. Marlene looked lighter in everyway; a real difference from her darker featured twin.

"I'm sorry Hanne," Grethel said, giving her friend a hug. "I can understand how you feel."

There was a lot of truth to that. A lot more truth than Grethel knew. Grethel had felt as bad as Hanne looked a few days ago when Wilhelmina had disappeared.

"No you don't!" Hanne snapped, pulling herself from Grethel's hug. "You don't know how it feels to--"

"Hanne! Calm down!" said the boy who had nudged her.

"But Jakob!" Hanne complained to Jakob, the tears streaming down her face. "She doesn't know what it feels like to… To lose someone like that!"

"What is that supposed to mean?!" Grethel snapped, restraining a slight urge to slap some sense into Hanne. "I know better than you think!"

"Who have you lost, then? No one! That's who!"

"Shut your mouth--!"

Grethel felt Johannes put a hand on her shoulder. She realised that he was ready to restrain her as much as Jakob was ready to restrain Hanne if a fight started. Even though Grethel and Hanne both knew that they were above fighting, Hanne was feeling messed up and Grethel was too.

After an awkward silence, where the two girls just stared at each other, Hanne finally asked, accusingly, "You don't care do you…? You don't care that Marlene got taken away!"

"Hanne you--!"

"Keep quiet Greth!" Johannes hissed. "We don't need you fighting her right now."

"I'm just trying to get it through her _thick head _that I know how she feels," Grethel retorted, pulling herself away from Johannes and backing away from the others before crossing the street and going around the corner before she reached her house.

Grethel slammed the door shut, probably nearly breaking the wooden thing. Immediately she jumped down into her chair and snatched up a book before tearing through the pages to get to where she had bookmarked it. Then the bookmark fell out and Grethel, for the first time ever, hollered a swear word at the top of her lungs.

"You don't sound happy," her uncle commented, from where he usually sat, pondering over whatever he was reading; Grethel didn't take much notice.

"Of course I don't!" Grethel hissed behind gritted teeth, but loud enough for her uncle to hear. "My friend hates me! She thinks that she knows who should feel what she feels and who shouldn't. It's annoying!"

Grethel's uncle just stared at her for a minute before turning back to his reading, saying, "That sounds quite familiar."

"I feel like Hanne blames me for Marlene getting taken away…" Grethel muttered, as girls do when they dwell on problems like this. "She thinks that I don't understand how she feels about--"

"This sounds more familiar than I thought."

"What's that supposed to mean, you old…" Grethel's voice trailed off as she met her uncle's eyes and realised what he had meant. She then quickly occupied herself with picking up her book and hiding her face behind it's pages. She felt the guilt wash over her like a fever. She was just as bad as Hanne, but worse. Grethel wasn't reading, but trying to stare through the book at her uncle. It was the usual silence before Grethel decided to break it.

"I just thought of something," Grethel announced. Her uncle looked up with his eyes showing a bit of hope. "After we find Wilhelmina, I'm going to find Marlene and bring her back for Hanne."

Her uncle couldn't help but smile slightly. He asked, "Does that mean you're going to put away your self pride and admit that Alchemy is real?"

"Don't get all hopeful," Grethel said, slightly slumping in her chair, which meant that she felt a bit tired. "I will never admit I'm wrong. The pride stays."

There was another silence, but not a deafly on like there usually was. It was calming and could nearly be described as tranquil.

"Wasn't there someone called 'Pride' in your story?" Grethel suddenly asked. "You're going to have to tell me what I need to know to help you. You realise that don't you?"

* * *

**Quite a bit more of Grethel than I had written before. Her bit wasn't planned to be that long and Hanne and Johannes and Jakob and the unamed person weren't originally going to be there, but I felt like making Grethel realise how she was treating her uncle.  
Still has too much self pride to openly say, "I was wrong, you were right." though. Stubborn muel...**

**And also, as I'll always remind you, pleas review for the many different reasons I have said in previous chapters. Especially if I got a fact wrong or if I need to chang something.**


	7. A Mother's View

**Ah, yes. It takes me a good long time to update but I would have updated yesterday 'cept I wasn't on the computer at all. I would have updated earlier today as well but I was helping someone set up the light bar. So I apologise for that you guys. Especially you lovely people that actually review and give out feedback.**

**And since I haven;t done one for a few chapters, here's a Disclaimer:  
DISCLAIMER: I _do not_ own anything FMA. If I did I would be too busy managing that and not have the time to write Fanfics. I _do_ however, own Wilhelmina, Edison and Grethel.**

**Let the chapter begin!**

* * *

There was something that distinguished Edison from the other boys that he had grown up around. Maybe it was because he was raised by a single mother; or maybe it was because he was simply more mature. Either way, it was obvious that he was different with his approach to dangerous and stressful situations. Like the one right now.

Absolutely no one knew where Wilhelmina had disappeared to. And his mother was going to come in any minute now and probably kill him. Edison just hoped that he saw the Fuhrer get killed before he died though. That was probably the only thing he had to look forward to at the moment.

Now, unlike everyone else who were running around majorly stressing out trying to figure out what had happened and what was about to happen, Edison was lying down on a bed in a bedroom that he had claimed last night since it was unoccupied, relaxing in the calm before the storm. It was a pretty plain one compared to some other luxurious ones that Edison had seen, but he liked things to plain. He had been brought up around plain things, so of course he'd feel uncomfortable sleeping in a fancy bed.

There was a crash of doors that made Edison jump up off his bed and run out of his room. He was already in the hall and only had to look down the left hand side to see a woman had busted open the front doors to the foyer. Edison felt funny; he wanted to go and hug the woman, but was also a bit afraid of her at the same time.

"Get your arse down here you damn Fuhrer!" the woman cussed with a frighteningly loud voice. Edison noticed that his mother was holding her favourite wrench in her right hand too, which just proved even more that she was gonna kill them. But Edison couldn't help but run up to his mother and give her a big hug.

"Mum, you're here!" Edison said, clinging to his mother. It nearly looked as if he had walked out of a nightmare and was hanging onto an item of his best dreams from the way his hands turned white as he gripped onto his mother.

The hug actually only lasted a few seconds, since he withdrew to let his mother speak.

"Hey Ed," she said, looking at her son affectionately. "You didn't catch any pansyness while you were here, right?"

Edison grinned. He knew that it was a joke down at the pub that the Fuhrer could act as a pansy. Only the people who didn't care much for politics and the sort said that, of course. But Edison and his mother used it as a joke a lot that one day, it Edison didn't watch it, the people down in Central would turn him into a pansy.

"Wel--"

There was a loud crashing sound that interrupted the Fuhrer's welcome. A wrench had hit the wall quite a bit above his head, leaving the Fuhrer looking shocked and Riza pointing a loaded gun at Edison's mother.

"Damn, I missed…" Edison heard his mother say bitterly. But then she looked up and he swore he nearly saw her about to start laughing.

"It's a good thing you did," Riza pointed out, lowering her gun slightly. "It wouldn't have been nice for you if you had hit him."

"No, no. I was aiming for the blasted picture or him behind his head."

All eyes looked up at the portrait behind the Fuhrer's head. The wrench had landed right between the eyes of the Fuhrer in the portrait, but was slightly to the left. Edison let out a laugh and he swore he saw Riza's mouth twitch at the edges, trying to let out a smile. The Fuhrer didn't seem as amused though when he turned back to Edison and his mother.

"Why did you do that, Winry?" the Fuhrer demanded at Edison's mother. "That cost--"

"The same reason why you kidnapped my son!" Edison's mother, Winry, snapped, storming up the stairs. The Fuhrer back away and moved ever so slightly behind Riza that you wouldn't have really been able to tell. Winry jumped and yanked the wrench out of the wall and then pointed it at the Fuhrer's face.

"Why did you kidnap my son, you--"

"Lets talk about this in a more soundproof room if we're going to get loud," the Fuhrer said, regaining his authorities voice. Edison saw his mother about to retort back with something other than agreeing, but she seemed to settle with the idea of talking somewhere that was not in the foyer or anywhere else where passers-by could look in and eaves drop. (His mother had actually busted the door down, probably beyond Immediate repair, as Edison noticed.)

Edison just stood there, looking at nothing into particular. He was starting to wonder again where Wilhelmina had gone. He remembered that she had hid pretty well in his room back when she had first come here, and she would be small enough to find many hiding places for herself in this big place too. Edison hoped that Wilhelmina was only playing hide and seek, but he somehow doubted it. She would have come out by now.

It took someone (Edison wasn't sure who; he wasn't paying enough attention) to call Edison up the stairs and tell him to come along, to remind Edison that he had to explain his side of the story too. Or whatever. Edison wasn't quite sure what was going to be talked about. Not that he was looking forward to it. He was actually starting to get a strong feeling of worry in his stomach for his friend who had disappeared.

* * *

"Hey Grethel, your friend Johannes is here," Grethel's uncle called out to a girl who was sitting in her usual chair, but instead of a book, she was reading over diagrams and written explanations. She just had to understand how this worked! If she didn't, they might not be able to get Willie back… 

"Did you hear me Grethel?" her uncle asked, with Johannes following him. Grethel wouldn't have really noticed, since she was too busy looking at the papers. There was no time to talk to Johannes. There was no time to shoo him away either. Hopefully he'd just take the hint and leave.

"Uh, Grethel…?" Johannes said, bending down and waving his hand in between Grethel's face and what she was reading. Grethel just lightly knocked it away.

"Is she okay?" Grethel heard Johannes ask, but barely. "She isn't sick, is she?"

"I honestly wouldn't know…"

"Can you two talk somewhere else?" Grethel snapped, but not fiercely. "I have to understand this!"

Grethel hadn't even looked up. According to what she was reading, it was these 'Transmutation Circles' that enabled 'Alchemists' to do 'Alchemy'. It had taken all of her willpower to not be entirely sceptical of this idea. Alchemy… Alchemists… These were just names to her and still were; they meant nothing else to Grethel.

That was probably why she found it so hard to understand all of this. How cold you mend something like a beer mug with only a circle and your own hands? It just seemed too impossible. Desperation was the only thing that made Grethel able to bring herself to soak this all in. Desperation for a way to bring Willie back.

It was a good twenty minutes before Grethel heard another voice.

"What happened?"

Grethel looked up to see her uncle. He seemed a bit… Grethel wasn't sure what the word was but knew that her uncle didn't seem happy with her. So she didn't answer him; just gave out a blank, non-understanding look.

"You're not becoming obsessed with finding Willie, are you Grethel?" her uncle asked in a low voice. Once he realised Grethel decided to keep her blank look on, he continued, "How could you ignore your friend like that? That's heartless. Even for you."

"What does that mean?!" Grethel demanded, and insulted. "Are you saying that I'm heartless?!"

She grinned on the inside. Her uncle felt bad for implying that fact. Grethel liked that; she knew that he'd soon start apologising…

"You know I don't mean th--"

"Yes you do."

Grethel pretty much had this conversation planned in her head. There was no real conversation anymore anyway. Her uncle just let out a defeated sigh and left her alone. Grethel liked that too. She just wanted to be alone while she tried to understand something her subconscious wouldn't allow her to.

And her wish was granted for the rest of that day. She was barely spoken to. But remember, a day ends when it crosses midnight.

"Psst…!" someone hissed over from the window. "Wake up Greth!"

After about five minutes or so, one of the three boys at the window plucked up enough courage to throw a stone at her. The stone missed and landed on the floor by Grethel's bed. The boy was laughed at by the other two, so he quickly picked up another one and threw it with a bit more force this time.

It was only until the stone hit Grethel on the head that he realised that he shouldn't have done that. Grethel let out a sound, signalling pain, and sat up sharply; glaring at the window where the five boys looked horrified and pale. They were half expecting her to throw the stone back and more.

"What was that for?" Grethel hissed, rubbing her head.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to hit you so hard," Jakob apologised. "But we tried everything else to wake you up."

"What do you want?" Grethel now asked, in a more louder and grumpier voice. It had been hard for her to get to sleep ever since Willie disappeared, which was why Grethel's burn of anger was now about equal with that of a murderer.

"To ask what was wrong," Johannes said.

"Yeah," the other one piped in. "Johannes said that when he came to see you today you didn't notice he was there at all. Are you ill?"

After a few seconds of silence, Grethel asked, "If I said I was ill, would Jakob still have thrown a stone at my head?"

Jakob's face went red out of embarrassment as he whispered an apology. He truly hadn't meant for the stone to hit her as hard as him and the other two boys thought it did. None of the boys could find something to say so they stayed silent. Grethel, tiring of the silence, broke it.

"Well if you have nothing to say," Grethel said, lying back down in her bed, tucking herself under her sheets. "I'm going back to sleep."

"We're worried that you're sick," Johannes managed to say. Grethel rolled her eyes and when she made no reply, Johannes pressed, "Well, are you?"

"Yeah…" Grethel answered with a breath. "I think I am…Worried sick."

"Worried sick?"

"What does she mean by that?"

"Probably over her fight with Han--"

"Go away!" Grethel snapped. "I am not worried about something as stupid and as childish as that!"

"Well, you know Hanne is sorry for--"

"I am not concerned about what Hanne thinks! She can get taken away for all I care… Then she won't be moaning about being separated from Marlene!"

Grethel turned to make sure that no one could see her face. The boys looked shocked, even offended. But no one was more shocked out of them than Grethel herself for saying something cruel about her friend. But Grethel wouldn't go and try to apologise like her uncle had done to her.

"That was barbaric," Jakob finally said, having wanted to say it immediately but hadn't been able to. "That was horrible for you to say."

Grethel heard Jakob turn around and leave. She fought with all her might to not turn around to watch him go away. She didn't want her friends thinking she had really meant what she had said about Hanne. She wanted to say sorry… But what good did saying sorry ever do? Nothing really.

"Just so you're warned," Johannes said coldly. "Hanne will hear about what you said one way or another. Be careful."

_Hanne is the one who ought to be careful,_ Grethel thought bitterly, before allowing herself to fall asleep.

* * *

After hearing the story from her son, a bit of an explanation from the Fuhrer and even a sentence or two from Riza, Winry Rockbell could only hear one repeated thought in her head. One piece repeating in her head. She was a bit surprised by it - no, more than a bit. And it took her a lot of effort to register the truth and not what her imagination kept changing it into. Finally, Winry Rockbell turned to her son and looked him directly in the eyes. 

"You hid a girl in your bedroom for a good number of days," Winry managed to say. "Do you know how… _iffy_ that sounds?"

The other three people in the room were quite surprised that that was the first thing Winry had said, in regards to the story. They expected her to comment more on the alchemy use, or the last name of the girl. They expected any other comment than the one Winry had said. But, when you think about it, none of them were mothers.

"Is that all you have to say?" the Fuhrer asked dimly and with an unimpressed voice. He had expected more.

"Of course it's not _all _of what I had to say," Winry said, speaking to the Fuhrer as if he were dumb. "That was just the first thing I said."

"I see…" the Fuhrer said, still puzzled to why that was the first thing Winry had said. "So, are you going to make any more comments. And not motherly ones!"

"Do you have something against mothers, Fuhrer?" Winry asked, feeling annoyed that her motherliness had been insulted.

"He's not a woman, Winry," Riza explained. "He doesn't understand like we do."

"He ought to," Winry said, stretching her arms back and slouching a bit. "I've always considered him a--"

"I advise you not to press your luck if you want your son to get out of this without me pressing any charges," the Fuhrer quickly, swiftly and fashionably interrupted before the slight insult was finished.

"And I'll say the same thing to you," Winry retorted. "You kidnapped my son! As well as a young girl!"

"Please don't start that, mum" Edison pleaded. "Shouldn't we figure out how to find Wilhelmina?"

"And what we will do about her case," the Fuhrer added. All eyes looked at him, confused, so he explained. "Wilhelmina came through the Gate in perfect condition as far as we can tell. That just doesn't happen. Something of a great scale must have been sacrificed. We need to know what it was."

The Fuhrer paused for a moment, looking at everyone's reactions. Edison was looking up at the ceiling as he usually did, Riza had her eyes focused (as usual), leaving Winry to look the most concerned. The Fuhrer continued.

"And we also have to figure out why she has disappeared overnight. She could have been pulled back to her world, kidnapped or, simply, just got lost."

"She wouldn't have gone back to her world," Edison cut in. "It would be kinda impossible. She must have gotten lost or kidnapped."

"You have known her longer than the rest of us, Edison," Riza said to Edison. "Can you honestly say that she'd let herself get lost."

Edison thought for a moment. He could expect Wilhelmina to get herself lost, but was she thick enough to walk around Central - in the dead of night - without anyone else? Edison wished that he could say that Wilhelmina was smart enough to not do that.

"Yes, she would," Edison admitted. "I can imagine her getting lost easily."

"From the sounds of it, she sticks out like a sore thumb," Winry said. "She shouldn't be too hard to find."

"Let's go out and look for her then," Edison said pleadingly, directing the pleading at the Fuhrer. "We could make posters and put them around the city."

"Rockbell," the Fuhrer addressed Edison, but got Winry's attention too. "Do you think it's more likely that she's lost than kidnapped."

"Why would someone want to kidnap her? Can you tell me that?" Edison asked a bit huskily. "She doesn't seem to care much for manners and she acts and looks odd."

"Her last name is Elric," the Fuhrer said loudly and dominantly. "People will draw conclusions that may be false. They will think she has some connection with the Elric brothers and that could attract too much attention. And, to top it off nicely, she's from the other side of the Gate. We don't know how people will react if she tells them stories like the ones she told on the train."

Edison felt like shouting, but he didn't know what he'd shout. He felt as though there was something inside of him that he had to shout out. He had to, but he couldn't. Edison wouldn't let himself shout out at the Fuhrer. He had brought on enough trouble as it was, so he just looked down at the cold, hard, stone floor and wished that he could look into it like a mirror and see where Wilhelmina was so that he could find her and make sure that she was safe.

* * *

**Mwahaha... you don't find out what's happened to Willie yet. Yet... Next chapter should have something about her. Now, if you excuse me, I'm gonna listen to Within Temptation some more.**

**And please people, R Read and Review. I need to know what the public thinks of my Fanfic so far. I'm quite worried about how I've captured Winry's personality. I just want people to remember that she's a mother now and is older and wiser (Oo) so keep that in mind.**


	8. Worry and Wondering Where You Are

**Yay here's the next chapter! I can't guarantee that it's as good as the other ones and I can't guarantee that Winry is Winry-ish in this chapter. This is why i like OC's: You don't have to worry about if their personality is the same on the show or not.  
And thank you to those that review, as always ;) You are nice people.**

**On with the show! Uh, chapter!**

* * *

Edison was getting overly-anxious now. He had been running around Central like a headless chicken for the past two hours, looking for Wilhelmina who wasn't appearing anywhere. He had even taken to calling her name out; drawing much unwanted attention from the crowds. He was starting to feel frustrated as well. He had grown attached to Wilhelmina ever since she had entered the first time into this world. He deeply wished from the depths of his inner being that the two could be back at his house, in his room, talking like they had done when he was hiding Wilhelmina. He had really enjoyed those talks.

But Edison was starting to realise, with each passing second, how much he missed Wilhelmina. It scared and infuriated him at the same time. He gritted his teeth as his eyes scanned the streets and binded himself to never let anything like this happen again! Once he found Wilhelmina of course.

_If_ he found Wilhelmina.

Edison wanted to hit his head against something. He shouldn't think like that! Being negative would never work; he knew that.

Edison found him sitting down at a table that was part of a café. He was relieved when the waiter seemed to be leaving him alone; not that a waiter would serve someone who briefly glared at him. He could swear that hours were passing instead of minutes, and he half expected the sky to become a horrible grey and pour rain down on him. That would complete the scene.

But, the sky was blue and the sun was shining. People everywhere were talking happily and enjoying their day. Edison wondered with a grudge at how they could be so happy when there was an absolute disaster.

_It's not a disaster, _Edison told himself. _Wilhelmina just got herself lost. She'd do that and you know she would. No one would want to kidnap her. She's smelly, rude and tells tall tales. No one would want her._

_Well if that was true, then why do you want her? _a voice in Edison's head argued.

_I didn't mean--_

_Yeah, yeah. Of course you didn't._

"Ed!" an always familiar voice called over to Edison who looked up to see his mother run over to him and briefly hug him, before holding onto him by the shoulders.

"Where did you disappear to?" she started to fire questions at him. "I thought that you were going to stay in the area near--"

"I'm okay, mum," Edison quickly assured his mother. "I know Central good enough to not get lost."

His mother nodded and sat herself down on a chair across the table from him. She looked at her son for a few moments, letting every detail sink in. She had never seen him so worried looking before; this puzzled her. This wasn't the sort of worried face he had when he wrecked someone's automail while repairing it - or even when he set the stove on fire. Edison had never had a reason to be worried in this sort of way before. Nothing like this had ever happened; and Winry doubted it would.

"You really are worried about her, aren't you?" Winry asked in her motherly way. Edison looked up at the sky and just made a sound that resembled, "Mmm…". Winry interpreted it as a 'Yes.'.

"Why did you hide her from me?"

Edison continued to look up at the sky. He was too scared to make eye contact with his mother; she would then know if he was lying or not. But he shouldn't have to lie to her, should he?

"I didn't…" Edison said slowly, trying to form the sentence in his mind as he was saying it. "I was… Wilhel… I didn't want to get in trouble for bringing her over! I wanted to keep her secret in case something like this happened! As soon as I saw her come out of the light, I knew she wasn't from here; I had my suspicions but I didn't want to know where she came from. She's from another place - another world! I was sure that the Military would--"

"Sssh…" Winry cooed as she reached across the table and stroked Edison's hair. "Calm down Ed. You look like you're going to break into tears any second now."

Edison swallowed against the hard lump in the back of his throat. He could feel his eyes heating up and the tears forming, fogging his vision faintly. He wouldn't let them escape his eyes though; he wouldn't allow it.

There was a silence in which Winry let Edison calm himself down. She could nearly feel his heartbeat slow and the unshed tears drying up. That was one good thing about being a mother to Edison; he had figured out easily how to calm himself down. Out of all the other children Winry had seen, she had noticed that Edison was the calmest she had ever met. But, Winry had to take into account that no major events had happened in his life. Winry envied her son that he had not experienced the things that she had.

Winry was about to ask how Edison was feeling and then ask a few more things about the girl he had meant (she couldn't remember the child's name), but Edison started to say something.

"Were they like this?" Edison asked, and quickly added when he saw his mothers confused stare. "The Elric brothers I mean. Did they get lost much? Did they refuse to shower and dress neatly? Did they make stories up? Did they awe at foreign objects in the way that she did? Did they eat--"

"Slow down, Ed," Winry quickly said. "You face is reddening."

Edison didn't make any response to that apart from his halt to his talking. He took a deep breath and apologised.

"But…" Edison now asked, figuring how to summarise all his questions into one. "Were they like her? Were the Elric brothers like Wilhelmina?"

Winry smiled for a moment, but Edison stared at his mother's eyes; trying to read her. What she was really thinking. He thought he saw a glitter of water in there, but decided to not think that. His mother was too strong to even know the word 'crying.'. Especially at something as foreign as memories.

"Well," Winry said, looking down at the table as her hand started to pick up the salt and twirl it around. "I can't really say. I have never met Wilhelmina… I would like to though; even if she is as much as a handful that she's made out to be."

Winry paused and grinned before adding, "You better not have picked up any bad habits from her Edison Alfonso Rockbe--"

"Winry!"

Winry's grin disappeared as she turned around in a hurry, to see Riza running towards her. Edison's expression hardened; Riza must have found something. And, to any point, he couldn't be seen crying in front of such a strong woman. It wouldn't be right.

"What is it Riza?" Winry asked, now standing up. Edison continued to sit down, it felt more comfortable being at a lower level than the two women. But he still looked at Riza with curiosity to hear what she had to say.

"Must--The Fuhrer says that he has an idea where the kidnapper--"

"Who said she was kidnapped?!" Edison snapped. "She wouldn't let herself be kidnapped! She's lost, that's all. Lost! She lost herself in this maze of a--"

"Be quiet!" Winry snapped. "Let Riza finish what she's saying!"

"Thank you Winry," Riza said to Winry, but said to Edison. "If she were lost, we would have found her by now. This place isn't as much of a maze as you think and the people here are kind."

"Kind enough to kidnap?" Edison said, and would have raised a single eyebrow if he knew how. Winry was about to scold him, when Riza spoke before she got the chance.

"Anyway, the Fuhrer has a good idea where the kidnapper took Wilhelmina, but he won't tell me anything. He says he will reveal his ideas when you two are there."

* * *

Wilhelmina woke in a bed. No, not a bed. _The_ bed. It was the softest Wilhelmina had ever seen and it was absolutely enormous. It was a nice old golden colour and matched the rest of the room that was coloured in gold and emerald green. The colours gave Wilhelmina a headache; she wasn't used to such bright colours all put together. She didn't have any idea that the Fuhrer was this rich. And, even so, why would she be allowed to sleep in such a glorious room?

In fact… She didn't remember getting a room at all.

Wilhelmina rolled off the bed and made her way to the rooms exit. She looked down the hallway and then realised that she couldn't be on the ground floor. She hurried down the hallway and quickly came to a rail that looked over the foyer. The faded golden colours of the foyer made Wilhelmina gasp and realise in confusion and horror that this was not the home of the Fuhrer.

She started to run to the stairs that were in plain sight and obviously lead down into the foyer. She just wanted to get out; she shouldn't be here! Although, as Wilhelmina realised as she slowed down on the stairs, it did seem rather warm in here. And inviting too. However she got here… Whoever owned this place probably invited her here and she just didn't remember. Why should she disappoint them?

"No," Wilhelmina told herself, shaking her head and giving it a slap. "It's wrong!"

"What's wrong?" a voice unexpectedly asked. Wilhelmina went read with the realisation that she wasn't alone in here.

A woman seemed to come from the side of the stairs and had moved so that now she was standing at their base, in front of Wilhelmina. The lady looked fairly old - probably older than she should do - and was dressed so that she was covered in head to toe, apart from her face. But, even though this woman was covered so much in clothes, Wilhelmina was not afraid of her for that reason. Where she came from, it wasn't odd to see an elderly woman so covered in layers of clothing. But there was something in the air the woman gave off that made Wilhelmina cautious of her.

"Do you own this house?" Wilhelmina asked, as politely as she could make herself.

"Yes," the woman asked, Wilhelmina realised that the woman's voice sounded a bit… tired. But the woman didn't show it. "I guess you could say that."

"Um… What--Why am I here?"

"Oh, I can't blame you for not remembering," the lady said, appearing closer. At first Wilhelmina thought that the lady was walking up to her, but soon realised that it was her who was walking. She abruptly stopped.

"I found you on the street, unconscious," the woman was saying, with a friendly voice that Wilhelmina had a cold feeling about. "So I decided to take you in for the night before a kidnapper or someone equally as horrible came by. Not everyone in Central is trustworthy."

Wilhelmina felt something about this woman that she couldn't recognise. She didn't dare agree or disagree with the woman's last statement either so she just stared. Then she realised that the woman was waiting for her to say something.

"My name is Wilhel--"

"--mina Trish Elric," the woman finished for Wilhelmina, startling her. Wilhelmina nearly fell over in her surprise. "I know your name?"

"How?"

"I knew your father."

Wilhelmina's head tilted to the left as she walked down the stairs so that she was level head height with the woman, before saying with her confused expression.

"How?"

"Edwarad and Alphonse Elric," the woman mused. "One's your father and one's your uncle, am I correct?" Wilhelmina made no sign of any answer, but now glared at the woman, who continued to say, "They were famous, in a sense. One of--"

"Famous?" Wilhelmina suddenly choked upon hearing and saying the word. No one had really told her that they were famous. She had gotten the impression that they were well known, but not famous. A s expected, Wilhelmina's imagination was already stretching the truth.

"The elder more than the young--"

"They were famous?" Wilhelmina repeated, her face still in disbelief. "Are you saying that everyone knew their name?"

"Well--"

"Wow… Everyone knew their name…"

The woman restrained herself from any ill thoughts or acts, apart from a heavy sigh that was possibly from irritation. She was quick to figure that she had to change the subject.

"Would you like to bath?" the woman asked. "I'm sure that I have some nice dresses that will fit you. I could even dress your hair up. Would you like that, Wilhelmina?"

"Uh… Sure--I mean, yes ma'am!" Wilhelmina quickly changed her answer, remembering that she had to be polite. Especially since this lady was being so nice to her.

"Oh, I just remembered," the lady said, turning her head to the side and whistling. Within seconds two… _beasts _came to her side. Wilhelmina would have screamed if she wasn't already convinced that they were both under the lady's control.

_She'll probably get them to eat me if I don't do what she says, _Wilhelmina suddenly thought, in regards to the snarling beasts. As far as she was concerned these beasts had foul red eyes and drool dripping from their fangs. She thought they looked at her hungrily, just waiting for the one word that would set them on her.

"These two are Chimera's," the lady explained, and smiled a smile Wilhelmina didn't like. "Do you know what Chimeras are?"

"I… I've heard their names before, but I can't remember what they are," Wilhelmina admitted and felt a bit ashamed of it. She felt like this was a word she was supposed to know.

"Despite what you might think, they are part human. Though, these two are more beast than men," the lady said and before Wilhelmina had a chance to have a look, her eyes were brought back to the lady who continued to say, "They won't hurt you. I have good control of them. I'm showing you them so that you wouldn't be alarmed if you bumped into them later. You're not used to creatures like Chimeras, are you?"

"No," Wilhelmina said quickly, feeling happy about speaking. It felt like a great relief came out of her throat. But she quickly added before the lady could engage her in any more talk, "I'm going to wash now."

"You turn on your right and then you go into the fourth door on you left," Wilhelmina heard the lady say, but just nodded. She wasn't sure if the lady saw the nod since she was now hurrying back up the stairs at this point, eager to get into the bath. Or anywhere away from this lady and the two Chimeras. When Wilhelmina reached the top of the stairs, she took a deep, relieved breath for making to to the top of the stairs and quickly hurried off, remembering that Chimera's had been in the stories that her father and uncle had told her.

_I guess they have had the pleasure of meeting Chimera's before, _Wilhelmina thought as she counted the doors. _I guess I should have remembered what they were quicker. Then I wouldn't have had to listen to that lady talk more._

Wilhelmina wasn't sure what it was in that woman's voice, but the voice made her feel uneasy and as if she had to have her guard up. She knew that she should be grateful towards the woman for letting her sleep here - even to bath here - but something in the back of her mind was telling her, warning her, that this woman wasn't good. But that voice grew faint as Wilhlemina bathed and even more fainter when she went back out to meet the woman properly who insisted that she dressed up nicely, instead of wearing her stained and horrible dress. At this stage, Wilhelmina was feeling comfortable and even a bit sleepy from her bath, so she lazily agreed. Pretty soon the warning voice was gone and Wilhelmina felt at ease.

She had forgotten about everything that didn't concern the many different and colourful dresses that were being shown to her.

* * *

**There you go peoples; a bit of an insight into what's gone on with Wilhelmina. Waking up in a strange place where Dante's appearing to be nice to her. Yeah, the lady in this chapter is Dante, in case you couldn't guess. And yeah, I felt like giving her two Chimera's. She can't carry out her plan on her own.  
No really, she can't. Old hag...**

**Anyway, read and review please! Tell me how you like the story so far, or whatever. You can even get at me for calling Dante an old hag if you want to.**


	9. Blurring the Truth and the Lies

**And how're you all today? Okay, I managed to type up the ninth chapter. Quite a few people do a bit of thinking in this one. And yes, there is more evilness by Dante. She makes Wilhelmina go from being happy to crying. It actually hurt when I typed up some of the stuff Dante said, but it had to be done. Sadly.**

**And, as always, a thank you to the people who read and review the story. Here, have some cookies gives out cookies**

* * *

"Hey Uncle…" Grethel said, not looking up form her book. She was reading some romance novel that was the same as the rest. Boy and girl meet and eventually fall in love and marry and live happily ever after. To be honest, Grethel wasn't really paying attention to it and had instead her mind had been racing bizarrely.

"Hmm…?" was the only sound that came from her uncle who was lazily slouching at his desk. He was supposed to be cooking their dinner right now, but he didn't feel like it at the moment. He had decided to leave that task for at least five minutes.

"Willie might never have made it through the Gate," Grethel said, but her voice was not sad or worried. Instead, it was inventive and full of ideas. "So that means she'd be dead right?"

There was no answer from her uncle who would rather to never have to think of that outcome. Thinking that she had confirmed her sister's death, Grethel straightened up and got her uncle's attention again.

"I don't believe she is," Grethel had quickly added. "If anything it would be whoever opened the Gate on the other side that would die since Willie had no intention of opening the Gate and crossing over. So, there's a pretty safe chance that she passed through, right?"

She smiled internally now that she noticed that her uncle was looking her with a bit of amazement. He seemed quite surprised, and Grethel bathed in her glory o surprising him.

"The fact that she didn't want to intentionally have any contact with the Gate does not mean that she will--"

"Just pretend that it does," Grethel quickly cut in and continued once her uncle gave a sigh of submission. "Actually, it doesn't matter if it does or doesn't. What I'm trying to get down to is the point that whatever was sacrificed was something, not big, but important. It's neither of us since we're still alive and well. And it was probably also something else that was straying around in her mind." Grethel took a deep breath. "So, I was going to ask if you told her any other stories that didn't involve Alchemy or that Amesis place."

"Amestris," her uncle corrected with a tired sigh. "It's called Amestris, not 'Amesis'. And I'm sorry but I only told her the stories about Alchemy. Only the ones you eavesdropped on."

Grethel's face reddened, though not as much as her ears, as she boomed, "I was not eavesdropping! You were speaking too loudly!" Grethel slammed her book shut. "Do you want me to say what I think she sacrificed, or not?"

"I was only answering your question," the uncle said and then asked, a bit eagerly, "What do you think she sacrificed?"

"Willie sacrificed," Grethel said, holding up a finger. "Whatever was straying around in her mind. Something important that she loves and always thinks about subconsciously."

"Which is…?"

Grethel turned her head away in a huff and muttered loudly, "I can't believe you expect me to know what goes on inside my little sister's mind! And, to any point, I'm not the one who poisoned her mind with rubbish stories!"

Then something strange happened. Grethel looked back around to see if it was true. Her uncle had started to laugh. He stopped abruptly when he noticed that Grethel was looking at him as if she had just realised he was capable of laughing.

He cleared his throat and apologized, "I'm sorry Grethel. I just find it funny how one little thing can make you think about Alchemy the way you used to."

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

"Before you were talking about Alchemy as if you liked it," her uncle explained, resisting heavily the urge to grin. "Maybe even as if you were an Alchemist. But as soon as you get the slightest bit upset, you think that it's poison I set in Willie's mind."

Grethel looked down at her book and complained, "I don't need you to expect me to have all the answers, you know!"

"I don't expect you to," her uncle said. "I didn't even expect you to understand Alchemy as much as Willie did--"  
"Do you think I'm inferior to her?!"

"With concepts like Alchemy you would be. You know as well as I do Grethel, you like to see things before you believe them. Willie, on the other hand won't. She's not as mature as you and is more… open to ideas."

"You speak as if it's a good thing…"

"Isn't it not?"

"If you are open to such ludicrous ideas, you let things happen to you," Grethel said stubbornly. "That's what happened to Willie; and I half expect her to fall into the most serious trouble because of it."

* * *

"Now that you are all here," the Fuhrer said, looking over at the mother and son who were seated across from his desk and at one of his most loyal (wo)men. They were all waiting in some form on anticipations, although Edison was obviously the most anxious. "I have something important to tell you after talking on the phone to a woman--"

"You were chatting up a woman when you were supposed to help us look for Wilhelmina?!" Edison suddenly demanded with a snap. The Fuhrer glared at Edison, but waved the outburst off.

"Rockbell," he said, talking to Edison as if he was talking to a dirty mule. "The woman was my way of finding the girl. The woman I was talking to was Rose and after asking a few questions I have located where your friend was taken to, Rockbell."

The two women gave the Fuhrer a look that read that they already knew that part and wanted him to hurry and get down to the point. Winry had even made a bit of a nod, despite the fact that it was barely noticeable. Edison however, unlike the two female adults, didn't look so serious. His expression was more open to showing how hopeful he was that they had found Wilhelmina.

"Where is it?" Edison asked, enthusiastic to find his friend.

"I believe we have all been there before, at one time or another," the Fuhrer said as his eyes darted to the faces to the three listeners to see if he made an impact. Then he remembered and quickly said to Edison, "Apart from you. I doubt you have even heard of--"

"Just tell us where it is!" Winry demanded, a bit impatiently. Her voice was dominant enough to make the Fuhrer nearly jump out of his skin.

"Of course," the Fuhrer said and then cleared his throat before saying. "The girl is certainly not the first person to cross through to our world. We know that Edward Elric crossed over to the girl's world and came back to Amestris before finally returning there to seal up the portal with his brother. Since these two incidents have happened in the same place, I wouldn't be surprised if the girl was taken to the Underground City."

"That sounds an awful lot like a guess," Winry protested. "What would the chances be of--"

"It's our only idea of where the girl could be," Riza quickly explained to Winry. "It's worth a try."

Edison looked at his mother. She seemed a bit… nervous. Maybe she didn't really like the idea of going underground. Edison had no memory of his mother being claustrophobic or afraid of going underground. Maybe it was the fact that it was also a city. He could only guess tat it was a deserted one since he hadn't ever heard of it before.

"You don't have to come if you don't want to," Edison told his mother, who shook her head.

"No," she said. "I'll come."

Edison made a bit of a weak smile. He was glad that his mother was coming. He wasn't sure why he was glad about it, but just gave it the reason that he would feel more safe - more protected - if she was there.

"What are you all looking at me for?" Winry asked. It was then that Edison noticed that all three of them had been looking at Winry. She clapped her hands and stood up as she said as enthusiastically as she could manage, "Well lets go to this Underground City then!"

Everyone had agreed in their own way, and before he knew it, Edison was following the three adults to… He didn't know where. He wasn't paying much attention to anything at all he was too busy worrying over Wilhelmina's health. It had suddenly occurred to him that she could be dead for all he knew. So Edison barely noticed when the Fuhrer dropped back a bit to speak to him.

"Don't look so pale, Rockbell," the Fuhrer said, punching Edison lightly in the arm. Edison rubbed his arm; he wasn't used to a friendly punch at all. Didn't even know it existed until now so as far as he was concerned, it hurt.

"Mmmm…" Edison said as he looked at his arm, trying to deduct if there was going to be a bruise there or not. His mind quickly went back to thinking about Wilhelmina and pondering over the possibility that she was dead.

"You're doing it again," the Fuhrer complained. "Aren't you happy that we're finding this, uh, Wilma girl?"

"Her name's not Wilma," Edison said, letting out a deep breath of air. "It's Wilhelmina."

"I was close enough."

"Yeah, whatever…"

The silence came between the two again; which the Fuhrer didn't like. So the solution was to talk.

"Well aren't you happy we're going to find her?" the Fuhrer asked Edison, who once again replied with a,

"Mmm…"

The Fuhrer frowned. Maybe the kid was broken. But, of course, there would definitely be a reply from the Fuhrer's trump card which usually worked on most people who were silent. The Fuhrer moved closer to Edison and asked in a lower voice so no one else would hear,

"So, Rockbell, is this girl your girlfriend?"

Edison started to walk a bit faster, catching up to his mother and Riza. He had no witty reply and didn't feel like talking to anyone. He was too busy trying to figure out the possibility of Wilhelmina's death. Surely she could talk her way out of trouble; or at least make up some story to get out of a situation. So that was a good thing.

The Fuhrer had caught up to Edison again, but Edison wasn't listening to what the Fuhrer was saying. He was too busy trying to guess if people from Wilhelmina's side of the Gate had more strength than people on his side of the Gate or not. Edison was so wrapped up in his thoughts and guesses that he nearly walked into Riza. Luckily, he was able to stop himself in time.

"You don't seem too happy about the idea of the Underground City, Winry," Edison heard Riza say. It was then he realised that he could easily eavesdrop off them, since they seemed to have barely acknowledged he was right behind them. And even though Edison was against eavesdropping most of the time, he wanted to know what Riza wanted to know.

"It's just that…" Winry tried to say. "Well… He came back. In the Underground City he had come back. But… then he left again with his brother… It's not the most positive memory."

Edison didn't understand who 'he' was for a few seconds, until he registered that his mother had also said 'his brother'. Edison dropped back a bit, in case his mother turned around and noticed that he had heard what she had said. Edison didn't want to give her a fright or anything.

"Haven't you guessed?" the Fuhrer asked, making Edison jump up in surprise. He had forgotten all about the Fuhrer. "Your mother was as close to the Elric brothers as you are to Wilhelmina. Well, her relationship was closer."

"I knew that," Edison half lied, making the Fuhrer grin a bit. He had known that his mother was close to the Elric brothers, but he hadn't exactly realised it. It made him feel a bit bad.

"It's not easy when your closest friends suddenly disappear like they did," the Fuhrer continued but Edison decided to only half-listen. All this was starting to make him feel sad for his mother, even if the intention was probably to make him more determined with finding Wilhelmina.

* * *

"Tell me about our family, Wilhelmina," the lady, who Wilhelmina just referred to as 'Miss', said as she combed the blonde girls hair. Wilhelmina felt delighted at being asked a question as if it was of high importance and immediately answered.

"Well," Wilhelmina said in her answer. "I have a father, mother, older sister and our uncle lives with us. My mother and father are off doing who-knows-what in the war. I don't really know much about the war, and I don't really care as long as they don't die in it."

"Tell me more about your sister," Dante said. Wilhelmina was too busy acting important to notice things that she would have usually noticed. Like the fact that her hair hurt when Dante tried to untangle horribly big knots.

"Oh, okay then," Wilhelmina said, even though she wanted to talk more about her father and uncle since they seemed to be very famous (in Wilhelmina's head of course). "Well, her name's Grethel. Um, she's about fourteen I think. Maybe older, I can't remember. She's as tall as a guy and can burp like one, but denies it."

"What does she look like?"

"Uh… She looks like…" Wilhelmina shocked herself with the fact that she had forgotten what her sister had looked like. "Well, her hair is… the colour of…"

"Can't you remem--"

"She has blonde hair," Wilhelmina quickly said, interrupting Dante. She then started to rattle off, describing Edison. After all, hadn't she said that Edison looked a lot like her sister? "And blue eyes. Her skin colour is normal but is tanned from being out in the sun working with… metal stuff…"

"Oh?" Dante said. "That sounds an awful lot like that 'friend' of yours."

Wilhelmina felt like shooting a weird look at Dante, but couldn't since the comb would pull her hair pretty hard. The way Dante had said friend wasn't very promising.

"You know," Dante said, manipulatively. "It is strange that he hid you from the world when you first came here. I wonder why he hid you from his mother."

"He was worried for my safety," Wilhelmina quickly answered stubbornly. "He didn't want me to be taken off somewhere--"

"--to where people could help you get home," Dante finished the sentence, although she changed it to her own meaning. "It may not be my place to say Wilhelmina, but I think your friend doesn't want you to go home."

"Of course he wouldn't," Wilhelmina said, jokingly. "He'd miss me too much."

"Is he that attached to you?"

"I don't know, but I'd miss him greatly if I went home."

"So," Dante said. "if you would miss him greatly when you go home, does that mean that you miss your family even more at the moment."

"No," Wilhelmina answered simply. "I'm used to my parents being gone, now. And I don't think Grethel misses me. She hated stories about Alchemy and thought they were a bad influence on me. And my uncle… He probably wanted me to come here. He seemed to love this place a lot. I don't need to miss them if they don't miss me."

"That's cold for you to say," Dante said, suddenly pretending to sound worried. "How could you say that about your own family? No matter what they will always miss you."

"They don't miss me that much," Wilhelmina said, trying to sound confident, even though her confidence was starting to break.

"How can you be so sure? Haven't you realised that you can never return?"

"What?!" Wilhelmina gasped as she twisted herself round, ignoring how much her hair hurt from the twist, to face Dante directly.

"What do you mean, Miss?" Wilhelmina asked, fear written all over her face. "Why can't I go home?"

"Dear child, haven't you been told?" Dante asked, convincingly sounding concerned. "Weren't you ever told that? It's a miracle that you passed through the Gate in the condition you did. It makes me wonder what you sacrificed…"

"I sacrificed nothing!" Wilhelmina said, for her own benefit. "I can't have. I mean, no one even asked me what I wanted to sacrifice!"

"Oh dear," Dante said. "If I had known you'd get so upset about this, I wouldn't have said anything."

"No, it's good you did," Wilhelmina quickly said. "But I'm scared now. What if something's gone? Something important! Oh… Please Miss, tell me I didn't sacrifice anything too important!"

"I can't really say, since I don't know what's important to you?" Dante said. "But, I have sources on the other side of the Gate which tell me that the war is over."

"Over?" Wilhelmina repeated dumbly, since the news struck her randomly. "Who-who won?"

"Uh… That's not important since I have something else they told me," Dante said, continuing and strengthening her lie. "I told them to look for your parents - since I am concerned about Ed and Al's safety - and they said that they couldn't find them."

Wilhelmina felt like a mirror that had just recently been shattered. Did that mean that her parents had died? And then, as Dante had planned, the most horrible thought struck Wilhelmina. Her face scrunched up and she quickly cupped it in her hands. Wilhelmina was curled over on the ground, trying as best as she could to not cry. She tried to push the thought out of her mind; tried to rip it up into little pieces, but failed. The thought kept circling around in her head, tormenting her and making her feel guilty.

_I-I-I can't have…_ Wilhelmina told herself. _I can't of! No! They must have got shot in the war! It's not real! Not right! This is all just a bad dream!_

_But you sacrificed them to get here, _the more pessimistic part of Wilhelmina's mind taunted. _Your selfish sense of adventure ended your parents lives. You sacrificed them so you get here._

And all the while Wilhelmina was crying, Dante occasionally said something comforting to play her part as a concerned friend. But, inside, she was delighted with how easy it was to trick children. Especially ones who were this gullible.

* * *

**DanteBIG BIG BIG ebil!!!!  
And just so you know and are assured, Wilhelmina did not sarcrifice her parents. Dante just said that. 'Cause she's evil. Evil lil bnitch...**

**Anyway, please read and review saying if you like the story or not. In fact, be more creative than just saying 'I like this story' or 'I hate this story'. You could even say it in another language! (Hah... no one'll do that...)**


	10. Denial

**I really am taking longer and longer to update, aren't I? Oh well, I think this is the longest chapter I've written so far anyway, so that makes up for that.  
Oh and I've finally figured out (kinda anyway) how to make Grethel a bit useful. You can kinda guess how in this chapter.**

**And, as always, I thank ye people who have reviewed this story and will give you cookies gives cookies**

**Random thing I've noticed: I found another story that has the same kinda base idea as mine (daughter of an Elric going from our world to Amestris), 'cept it's way different. I reckon that's awesome! But the author of that story clears that it's Ed's daughter, whereas I refuse to say ahem  
But it really is amazing how different it is.**

**And now since I haven't had one in a while:**

**_DISCLAIMER: _I do NOT own FMA. I DO own Wilhelmina, Edison and Grethel though. Mine!**

* * *

"Are you feeling any better, Willie?" Dante asked the girl who had been crying. Wilhelmina had gotten most upset when it had occurred to her that she could have possibly sacrificed her parents to get here and had cried for who knows how long. But now she was starting to calm down. She was down to the point where she just sobbed quietly as Dante tried to figure out what to do with Wilhelmina's hair.

"S-Sort of," Wilhelmina answered with a sniff. She wiped her nose with the back of her hand and Dante's nose wrinkled at the sight of snot.

"I know how we can make you forget about all your worries," Dante suggested, with a certain acted excitement in her voice. She was still unsure about this decision. "Do you want to hear my idea, Willie?"

"Yes…" Wilhelmina answered, trying not to sound like she had just cried.

"Would you like me to teach you Alchemy?"

Wilhelmina stopped sobbing for a second, upon hearing the offer. It sure sounded like a nice offer to her since she had always wanted, whether she openly admitted it or not, to learn Alchemy. Ever since first hearing the stories about it. But Wilhelmina gave a cough mixed with a sob and tried to hold the tears in.

After a minute of holding back the tears Wilhelmina answered, "Yes… I do, I guess. But…" Wilhelmina's voice broke and then she started to sob again. "Alchemy killed my parents!"

Dante felt happier now that she had realised how upset she had made the girl. Being how she was, Dante knew how to play Wilhelmina to her desire now.

"That may be true," Dante said, patting Wilhelmina's head lightly. "But it also makes things easier."

Wilhelmina didn't reply and Dante didn't continue the conversation either. She just sat there, tying up Wilhelmina's golden hair, sickly reminded of the two boys who had wrecked her plans. Wilhelmina's hair also reminded her of Hohenheim, her old lover and the man who had made life harder for her.

Finally, after what seemed like an agonising eternity, Dante didn't have to touch Wilhelmina's hair anymore, since she had tied it up, quite tightly to Wilhelmina's immediate dislike, in a fancy way that resembled quite a big bun.

"Let's go and get something to eat," Dante suggested, since Wilhelmina merely stood up and busied herself with inspecting her hair in the mirror. Wilhelmina wasn't used to her hair being tied up, so her hair and scalp felt funny and sore. But when Dante had suggested food, Wilhelmina agreed and followed her into the hallway and down it as well as the stairs into what Wilhelmina recognised as the biggest Dining Room she had ever seen.

"I'll quickly make something and then we can start with the Alchemy lessons," Dante told Wilhelmina, who just nodded blankly. "Are you okay with that?"

"Uh, yes," Wilhelmina said, surprised that her nod hadn't been enough of an answer. She watched Dante leave the room and no sooner had she left, Wilhelmina checked around for anyone watching and to her despair saw one of the Chimeras sitting in the corner. Wilhelmina gasped and held her breath until she realised that the creature was asleep.

_I wonder what time it is, _Wilhelmina wondered, now that she had seen the Chimera asleep. She wasn't even sure what time it had been when she had first awoken in this strange place; the place was always lit up by candles and the curtains were always drawn so it would be pretty impossible to tell if it was night or not, to Wilhelmina's reckoning.

She made her way around to one of the chairs that sat with the long table and sat there for a good ten seconds before getting completely bored out of her mind. There was nothing to do except for sitting and waiting for Dante to come back with some food. The thought of food also made Wilhelmina realise how hungry she was now. But the fact she felt bored dominated over the fact that she felt hungry.

_I'm sure it takes a while for someone to cook food,_ Wilhelmina convinced herself. _So I guess it couldn't hurt if I had a look around. Even though it's rude, I doubt she'll catch me._

There was no chance for Wilhelmina to even get near a door though. She had stood up and as she made her way over to a door, she heard the Chimera growl. Turning around, she realised that it was awake and immediately understood that it wanted her to stay in the Dining Room. And it was only a few seconds after that that Dante re-entered with some buttered bread rolls. Wilhelmina's heart, and stomach, sank since she was in the mood for something cooked but, she reminded herself, she should be grateful that she was being fed anyway.

As the two females ate their bread rolls, they mainly talked about Alchemy. Wilhelmina didn't actually ever intend on talking that much, but after a bite of food, she felt more comfortable and relaxed. Dante was mainly asking Wilhelmina what she knew about Alchemy, claiming that it would help her know what to teach her. And, to be honest, Wilhelmina fluffed the truth up a bit, pretending that she could do the basics when, in fact, she had never attempted proper Alchemy in her life. Well… In this world anyway. She remembered that back home she always used to pretend to use Alchemy when she was bored.

"So who taught you how to do the basics?" Dante casually inquired, since she somehow doubted that Wilhelmina had used Alchemy at all.

"Oh, I used what I remembered from the stories I was told," Wilhelmina answered simply. "And my uncle drew me some circles for me to trace and copy too."

"The stories must have been in depth if they could tell you how to do Alchemy," Dante remarked, reminding herself that there was no way Wilhelmina could do the basics of Alchemy.

"Oh yes," Wilhelmina said in agreement. "My father and uncle were very good at telling stories."

"Really? I never knew that was a skill the Elric brothers had."

"Yeah, well the stories were detailed enough for me," Wilhelmina said, and swallowed another bite or her bread roll. "It was the stories at the end that got me though. I remember they'd tone down the violence whenever my mother was nearby. The Homunculus sounded horrible though; especially that witch that was in charge of them. Her name was Anté or something."

Dante's eye gave a twitch at being called a witch and having her name mispronounced, but Wilhelmina didn't see that since she was too busy finishing the devouring of her bread roll.

"Tell me," Dante dared to ask, curiosity getting the better of her. "Was the woman's name Dante?"

"Oh yes! That's what it was."

"I've heard of her. So… What was she like? In the stories of course."

"Um, well, she was definitely evil," Wilhelmina said, straining her brain to remember what she was told. "I think she… I can't remember her much in the story, except she killed someone or something. I know that my father and uncle hate her though and are glad that she's dead. I guess I'm glad for that too; I'd be dead afraid of meeting her. She might try to kill me!"

Dante was silent as she stared at Wilhelmina with an expressionless face. She obviously could not reveal her real name to the young girl who was finishing her food off, otherwise her plan would be in jeopardy. She needed Wilhelmina to trust her (which was proving itself easy so far) if she was going to accomplish her task at all.

* * *

"Ugh, this place smells," Edison commented, covering his nose and mouth with his hand. It was pretty stuffy down here, but then again, they were after all underground, as Edison had to remind himself as he started to fall out of his pattern of following the three adults. He was now wandering, a few metres at a time, away from them to look at the old buildings. He was quite surprised that there was a place like this down here; or he was at least surprised that such a place had survived for so long.

"So what's the plan?" Winry asked, eyeing the old and moulding buildings suspiciously. "It'd probably be better if we split up but…"

Edison found that he stopped hearing his mother as he crouched down on the ground, looking at the dirt and rubble; inspecting the dust that it had collected. He was now more convinced than ever that this place was older than ancient.

Something didn't seem right, he had decided. The place looked, and was, dead. There was no way Wilhelmina could be here. And even if she was, Edison was sure that he'd be able to tell. He couldn't explain it but… He just had this feeling that she wasn't there at all. Who in their right mind would kidnap a girl and bring her here anyway?

Edison took a few more steps around before finally voicing his opinion to everyone else, interrupting whatever they were talking about, "Wilhelmina's not here."

There wasn't much of an instant, on the spot, reply from anyone since the three adults either didn't really hear what Edison had said, or they were looking at him, wondering how on earth he could judge that Wilhelmina wasn't here.

"What makes you so sure of that?" the Fuhrer asked. This was his idea after all and he didn't want it to be a wrong idea straight away.

"I… I don't know but I'm sure that Wilhelmina isn't here," Edison quickly said. The Fuhrer frowned and told Edison something along the lines of, 'We'd better look to make sure.' but Edison wasn't listening. Unlike before, when he was too busy studying the area with his eyes, now he was just not listening because all he could hear was static. Or at least something that resembled it anyway. His vision blurred and then he fell over, tired.

* * *

"_Who are you?" a voice asked, sounding a bit nervous. "What do you want?"_

_Edison spun around, looking frantically for the source of the voice, but saw nothing apart from a mist that was around him. Everything was clouded and the voice sounded just as confused as he was._

"_Where am I?" Edison asked, but his voice broke off with a gasp. It sounded more ghostly now. He didn't like it. Not at all._

"_Argh! This always happens when I fall asleep reading!" the voice seemed to complain, but quickly gathered itself up and asked, rather demandingly, "Who are you?"_

"_I-I'm…" Edison tried to say, but for some reason, his name wouldn't allow itself to be spoken. Instead he quickly asked in return, "Who are you?"_

"_My name is…" the voice tried to say, but obviously was struck with the same problem. Edison opened his mouth to ask where he was, but the voice broke in by asking something first. A question that seemed to come out of nowhere and made Edison feel as if he had been slapped across the face._

"_Where did you take Willie?!"_

* * *

"Give her back you--"

The rest of Grethel's sentence consisted of insults, threats and swearing that greatly surprised her uncle who had never known that anyone, especially Grethel (despite how mean she could be if she wanted to), could use such fowl language in one sentence. Then again, he wasn't quite sure if Grethel done this all the time in her sleep or not.

Grethel shot up, back into her sitting position, gripping her book so tightly that it was surprising that her knuckles didn't go from white to transparent. She was breathing heavily and hard, as if she had just awoken from a nightmare. Which she had actually, as far as she was concerned.

_It's okay,_ Grethel told herself, attempting to calm herself down. _It's just like when I was little. It's not real._

An odd feeling came to Grethel when she told herself that it wasn't real, but the feeling was easily ignored since she was starting to regret throwing the book, that she was gripping ever so tightly a minute ago, with such a force that it broke a mug that was left on a table.

"Are you okay?" Grethel heard her uncle ask. She nodded slowly with her still pale face and stood up.

"I need a drink," Grethel announced, and walked towards the kitchen before there was any protest; which there wouldn't have been in the first place.

_That was strange, _Grethel thought as she poured water from the tap in the kitchen into a mug. _I haven't those nightmares since I was a little kid. Why am I having them now?_

The sound of the other voice gripped Grethel and wrapped itself around her, clutching her neck. She quickly shook the odd feeling off, but put one hand on her neck, just in case. She took a small sip of the water, trying to ignore the memory of the voice that sounded as confused as she was.

_Maybe it was… _Grethel started to think, but then slammed down her mug in objection to the thought and shouted,

"No! I am not a little kid anymore!"

Grethel let out a very irritated sigh and looked at her reflection in the half-empty mug. The sight of how pale her face was nearly sickened her and she was annoyed that her hair was going to fall out of how she had tied it so carefully this morning. The positive side of her mind wanted to give the voice a face, but the negative side gave the positive side a mental slap.

"Grethel," her uncle said, holding the broken mug that Grethel had broken with her book. "Do you need to go to a Doctor?"

Grethel shook her head slowly and said, "No… I just need to think."

Grethel didn't see her uncle's eyes darken with concern or that she was gripping the mug so tight her knuckles were turning white again. She was too busy trying to… She didn't know anymore. Grethel felt like she didn't know; not even from the start. Her usual stubborn confidence and control was starting to slip away from her.

"You look really bad," her uncle said, putting an arm gently around her shoulders. "Do you know what's wrong? I could look for some medi--"

"I'm not a little kid anymore!" Grethel shouted, mainly to capture the attention and to show that she was going to speak. "I've grown up so why am I having dreams like I did when I was little? I don't like it!"

"Grethel, calm down," her uncle said, patting Grethel on the back, trying to comfort her. "It was just a nightmare."

Grethel was undoubtedly starting to hyperventilate and her hands suddenly pulled themselves close to her chest (dropping her mug on the ground, breaking it. Two in one chapter). She, as well as her uncle, tried to calm herself down, but Grethel couldn't help but feel as if she was losing all control. It was slipping away from her; laughing at her. Grethel's eyes widened and looked around. For a second she thought that she could actually hear an impish laughter.

"I-I-I r-really am g-going crazy…" Grethel whimpered.

"No you're not," her uncle said in an assuring voice. "You're just having a panic attack. Here, let's take you back to your chair - be careful now - and then you can tell me what happened. Did your nightmare bring this about?"

"I-I d-d-don't k-know…" Grethel said, forcing down a sob. Even though she felt unstable, she wouldn't let herself cry. She refused to cry; never cry.

Nearly ten minutes later, Grethel was sitting down in her chair and was back to normal. She had asked her uncle to drink some alcohol - believing that it would make things easier - but her uncle wasn't stupid and said he'd get her another glass of water instead. Grethel eventually agreed, having no strength in her to argue.

"So what was you're nightmare about?" her uncle asked, now that they were both sitting down and acting normally. "Did it have demons in it?"

"No, no," Grethel answered, being rather quick about it. She had remembered that about a year ago she had had a nightmare about demons that left her sleep-talking and crying. Immediately the next day, Grethel went to church.

"Then what was it about?" her uncle asked. "Some thing scary?"

"No, it wasn't scary," Grethel answered, slightly startling her uncle. "I used to have the dream when I was little. All the time. It was always in the same place; a kind of foggy place. There was this voice… Wait… No, the dream I just had, the voice that was speaking sounded a bit like the one that belonged to the boy that I used to play with in my dreams."

"Was this your imaginary friend that you had a long time ago?" her uncle asked, suddenly remembering that Grethel once used to act like a child.

"Yeah… We couldn't say our names before; we couldn't tell each other our names for some reason," Grethel gave out a bit of a laugh, "but we were clever and called each other by our middle names."

"So he was the voice in your dream?"

Grethel nodded and took a big gulp of her water; it had never tasted so good. "The voice I heard just now sounded just like Alfie. Just… He sounded scared too… And I couldn't see him, so I didn't recognise him. I think I scared him away."

Her uncle smiled, "You talk as if he was real."

"Don't accuse me of silly things!" Grethel suddenly snapped. "I'm too old to believe in that stuff now."

"As I remember hearing you shout."

Grethel snapped her head away in protest and became occupied with looking at the wall. She really did despise herself when she thought so childishly; she was above that. She was mature! And whether that was a bad thing or not, Grethel didn't care. Someone had to be mature. Her uncle and Willie had been so wrapped up in fantasy stories about 'Alchemy' that Grethel doubted they could judge things properly.

"I think I know why you had that panic attack," her uncle said, almost as if he had read her mind. "You shouted about not being a kid before you had it. Maybe that panic attack was a sign that you act too mature. You block off anything that doesn't sound logi--"

"Be quiet!" Grethel snapped, more ferociously than a tiger could. "I don't want to--"

"You need to learn to accept things!" her uncle said in an unexpected raised voice, that outdone Grethel's. "When your parents went to war you suddenly became like this and turned even more stubborn than before. If you continue to refuse things can happen - especially in your own mind - you will have more panic attacks."

Grethel made no sign of having heard her uncle. She was looking at the ceiling and her skin had paled again. Her face looked down so that she was now looking at her uncle. She looked as if she had seen a ghost.

"What is it?" her uncle asked, confused.

Grethel sighed and took a drink of her water. "It's nothing."

"Tell me anyway."

"No."

"One thing may be nothing to you, but it may mean something to another person."

Grethel oddly grinned, accepting this defeat, and revealed, "When I demanded from Alfie where Willie was, I felt his emotion. It sounds stupid, but I think he was looking for her too."

"That's…" her uncle said, and paused, before finishing. "That's not stupid… It's true."

"Are you kidding me old man?" Grethel said with a laugh. "Alfie's in my mind."

"No," her uncle corrected her, sounding excited upon realising it. "He's in Amestris."

"Uhh… _Excuse me?_"

* * *

**And if any of you's think panic attacks aren't that serious, then I'll skin you alive!  
Sorry, just had to say that -.-"**

**Anyway, can you see how Grethel may be of use now? And the readers are going, "Yay, even _more_ character development!" ( --sarcastic, I'm sure) I swear, I have a problem with only writing character development.  
Oh, and I want you guys to notice how Grethel and Edison can actually communicate with eachother, where (in the movie) Al could only see what his counterpart was living. That fact kinda becomes important later on I guess.**

**And now, since I'm a persistant with saying this, please R Read and Review. C'mon, I dare ya!**


	11. The Invisble String That Connects Us

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own FMA, FMA owns me. Nah, just jokes**

**Sorry it took so darn long to reply! Heh, I don't have a good enough explanation cept that RP's have kept me busy these holidays and I'm just starting to get active again on Deviantart. And I don't even have a long chapter to make up for it -.-"**

* * *

Yeah, Wilhelmina had been excited about being taught Alchemy by a lady she knew as 'Miss' (that we all know as Dante), but she had had no idea at all that it would be all talk. Wilhelmina had expected a bit more practical instead of all the things that 'Miss' was telling her. Wilhelmina was no good at sitting still and being patient after all. Despite how interesting this stuff was and all, Wilhelmina's mind just kept wandering off to completely unnecessary things.

_I never knew that there was a boring side to Alchemy, _Wilhelmina thought to herself. _This is interesting, but how long have I been sitting here listening to this? A few days?_

This was Wilhelmina's second day in the care of Dante and so far the only things she had been taught was… Well, Wilhelmina considered it as nothing really. They sat out in a beautiful garden, like yesterday, while Dante told Wilhelmina different things about Alchemy. Wilhelmina was glad it was outside though; she had nearly forgotten what sunlight was like since she had been around too much candlelight. Why had she been around candlelight? She liked playing with the flames and blowing at them. Oh, and the fact that it was the only source of light in the entire dark house.

Wilhelmina only had about two hours spare time in the evening last night, in which she explored the huge, rich house. By now she was familiar with most of it's layout, apart from a couple of rooms which the two Chimeras had been guarding. Not wanting to be eaten, Wilhelmina had left those rooms alone. She didn't ask Dante about those rooms of course, just to be polite and to also not let on the fact that she was nosily exploring; even though it was clear, even to Wilhelmina, that Dante probably already knew. Wilhelmina had guessed that Dante would keep a constant eye on her and she was right.

Wilhelmina was rarely ever out of Dante's sight.

"… inside of every person is…"

Wilhelmina's eyes kept looking at Dante as she pretended to listen and understand what she was being told but really; Wilhelmina just wanted to do some _real _Alchemy. Apparently it seemed to show in her eyes and expression since Dante suddenly stopped what she was saying and asked,

"Am I boring you?"

"Oh no, of course not ma'am," Wilhelmina answered quickly with her lie. "I am very interested in what you are saying."

The unconvinced Dante looked at Wilhelmina for a few seconds before asking her, "What was I talking about?"

"Uh…" Wilhelmina tried to rack her brain for whatever she could, but didn't really turn up any answers. "You were talking about Alchemy..?"

"Be more specific."

"Um… Transmutation Circles..?"

Clearly Wilhelmina was far from right, as she guessed by the disappointed look on Dante's face. Wilhelmina felt a bit guilty, silly and also worried that she had insulted Dante and would get thrown out into the forest; no longer welcome in the nicely big house. Where else could she go to if she weren't allowed to stay here anymore? Wilhelmina couldn't think of anyone else who would look after her.

So, to save herself from the small possibility of being unwelcome, Wilhelmina looked at Dante and said, "I'm sorry Miss. It's just… I want to actually _do _Alchemy. Not just talk about it."

Wilhelmina felt Dante's eyes scan over her, trying to determine what she was going to say in response. Wilhelmina looked down at the ground, feeling slightly nervous. She wanted to stay here. This house and the garden… It had sort of grown on Wilhelmina even though she had spent a ridiculously short time here.

"If you do not know the theory," Dante said, in a voice that made Wilhelmina feel like shrinking, "you cannot do the practical."

"But I do know the theory," Wilhelmina half mumbled. She was hoping that Dante didn't hear that, which was why she suddenly wondered why she even opened her mouth.

"You know how to do basic Alchemy," Dante corrected Wilhelmina. "Or at least you claim to. What I want to teach you is advanced. Something… _special._"

Wilhelmina was now looking at Dante with wonder. The words '_Something special_' echoed through her head, increasing her curiosity manyfold. Wilhelmina felt a bit more interested now and gave a small nod, for a reason she wasn't sure of, but decided that it was to show Dante that she wanted to learn 'Something special'.

"What is the special thing?" Wilhelmina asked Dante, who smiled, obviously pleased that she had now captured the child's attention.

"Listen Willie," Dante said. "I'm teaching you a method that I recently discovered. This method can make the very item your father and uncle were after."

"Do you mean the…" Wilhelmina paused, trying to remember what it was called but ended up saying. "…the…. _Thingy_ stone!"

"The _Philosopher's_ Stone," Dante corrected Wilhelmina for the second time today and put up her hand, signalling for Wilhelmina to not speak. "And yes, that is what I'm teaching you to--"

Wilhelmina couldn't hold in her manners and asked, "Why would I want to know how to make one though? I don't need to."

"Do you remember what I told you yesterday?" Dante asked. "You sacrificed your parents to--"

"You can't bring people back though!" Wilhelmina suddenly pointed out, feeling proud of herself but shrank back down when she saw Dante give her a sort of glare, so she added quietly, "Can you…?"

"It is possible," Dante said, though she couldn't honestly say if she was lying or not.

"But don't you have to sacrifice lots of--"

"No Willie," Dante quickly said, feeling a bit annoyed at the girl. "This is a different method. I promise you that no one will be sacrificed. I promise everything will be alright."

"Yeah," Wilhelmina agreed with a smile. _Of course everything will go alright. Miss wouldn't let anything bad happen to me. She's not that kind of person._

"So tell me the theory," Wilhelmina said, filled with more enthusiasm for sitting and listening.

"Well, my method has something to do with your world too," Dante said with a smile. "Someone is connected with someone else. For an example, in your world, there I someone who looks exactly like me."

"So who looks like me?" Wilhelmina asked, still drawing herself out of the habit of only half-listening.

"You," Dante answered, but stopped to take a sip of water from a glass. "You don't have someone. One of your parents was born of this world and your other parent was born of your world. You don't need that someone."

"Huh?" Wilhelmina stared at Dante, pointing to herself. "Is that a good thing?"

"It is neither good nor bad. It's just like that," Dante answered and now seeing that Wilhelmina was silent, she continued, "But everyone else is connected to someone else. They are generally a mirror opposite of each other's appearance apart from a few flaws. The biggest difference is a gender difference; but that is very rare."

"Wait!" Wilhelmina gasped. "Is my friend connected to my sister?"

Dante looked at Wilhelmina with confusion for a bit, but was quick to resume her normal smile. She answered, "Yes. Edison and Grethel are connected. You must imagine the connection as a string. The one between them is stronger since they are opposite genders, which makes their bond stronger."

"Why?"

"I don't know," Dante admitted. "I just know it's like that. I don't know why it is. Now these bonds have a strong type of energy that, if gathered and manipulated properly, can be an alternative to the materials usually used to make a Philosopher's Stone."

"So how do you gather and manipulate them?" Wilhelmina asked, feeling a bit suspicious about this method. It didn't seem quite right.

"That is what I'm, going to teach you."

* * *

Edison was currently sitting down on a bench in a park in Central, eating an ice cream. After his panic attack yesterday, his mother refused to let him go outside of Central; even if it did mean looking for his friend. Edison had argued to his mother that she was overreacting, but when does arguing with your mother ever work?

"_Stawberry… Tastes… Nice…" _a faint but familiar voice said in Edison's head. Or at least, that's what he guessed the voice had said. After all, she always did sound fuzzy but lately she had been talking more often – or at least trying to – meaning that it was harder than ever to understand her.

Edison knew her as Schnee. Short for Schneeglöckchen, a name which Edison found as too much of an intimidating one to say.

"Why do you talk to me?" Edison said quietly looking up at the sky, wondering if anyone had found Wilhelmina. Well… He was actually wondering where she was so that he could sneak over to where she was and rescue her, but it was very, _very_ unlikely for a sign or anything to tell him where Wilhelmina was.

"_So why are you all of a sudden talking to me?" _Edison asked Schnee. He doubted that she heard it though. Ever since he was a child, Edison had decided that he was smarter than Schnee.

"_Repee." _Schnee said, and Edison guessed that she had said something like "Repeat."

Edison started to laugh at him self. He was sitting in a park, eating a strawberry flavoured ice cream while talking to his imaginary friend when he should be looking for his _real_ friend. The one that didn't live in his head. It did sound funny to him.

"_Why you talk to me now?" _Edison asked Schnee, purposely dumbing it down as a joke. He guessed that the message got through to her since he started to hear the funny noise that came with her voice.

"_You… In… Amestris?" _Schnee asked, playing the 'tone-sentence-down-game-to-make-fun-of-person-you're-speaking-to' game too. Edison rolled his eyes.

"_Duh," _he said, taking more attention to eating his ice cream and to where Wilhelmina was. HE was starting to realise that it seemed a bit funny that he had suddenly _felt_ that Wilhelmina wasn't down there. It seemed a bit eerie.

"_Where's Willie?" _Schnee asked. Edison laughed.

"That's what I wanna…" Edison had started to say with a bit of a laugh, but had realised something. He had finally clicked. Yesterday, didn't Schnee ask where Willie was? And hadn't Wilhelmina said that Edison could call her Willie?

"_Do you know Wilhelmina Elric?" _Edison quickly shot the question at Schnee, feeling stupid that he was talking to his mind as if it was a real person. Schnee had been a mere figment of his imagination. She wasn't real. He even felt more silly, when he asked the question a few more times, since Schnee had kept asking for a repeat.

"_My… Sister…"_

Edison half expected the rest of his ice cream to fall off it's cone comically. Parts of his memory were starting to show him things he never realised before. Wilhelmina had once mentioned a sister; even saying that he looked like her.

"_What's your name?" _Edison asked, but after about ten seconds, Schnee asked for him to repeat, so he did.

"_Schneeglöckchen,"_ Schnee said, making Edison feel dumb that he had forgotten that they could never manage to say their first names.

"_What… Your… Name?" _Schnee asked.

Edison tried a few times to say his real name but had to revert back to his middle name. _"Alfonso…"_

"_Where… Will…?"_

Edison curled over, putting his head between his knees; trying to sort out what was going on. Surely this all wasn't real. Schnee being Wilhelmina's sister? That was just too much of a coincidence for Edison. He didn't like it. He didn't like this. All of a sudden; ever since Wilhelmina had come through the Gate his life had changed. All of a sudden, Edison was starting to realise the new pattern in his life; a pattern of trying to keep Wilhelmina secret, having her kidnapped, finding out that her sister was his childhood imaginary friend.

_Maybe that panic attack done something to me yesterday, _Edison told himself. _Maybe I've had to much fresh air. Or, maybe… Am I worrying over Wilhelmina too much?_

"…_Is… Willie?"_

Edison flicked his head and stood up. He had decided that from now on he'd ignore that annoying voice. He would completely not hear a single thing Schnee said.

* * *

"_Afie… Alfie… Alfie!!!"_

"Answer me Alfie!" Grethel shouted at her bedroom door.

All morning she had been trying to contact Alfie, ever since her uncle had suggested that he was from Amestris actually, and had demanded from him where Willie was. She had been highly strung the entire morning, but now she had just snapped since now she wasn't even getting any answers. What a morning!

"What are you doing in there?" came the voice of her uncle, through her bedroom door. Grethel let out a vicious exhale of ear and jumped down on her bed in protest. How dare Alfie ignore her?!

Her uncle opened the door slightly, so that he wouldn't have to shout through a piece of wood, and said, "You've been muttering the entire morning in here. What have you been doing?"

"Oh it's nothing," Grethel said, folding her arms. But, by now, she should have known that it was impossible to keep such secrets from family members. And, in any sky, her uncle could easily tell what she had been doing.

"You've been talking to that friend of yours, haven't you?" he asked, smiling at Grethel's near-insulted expression.

"Of course I have!" Grethel retorted, a bit loud since her temper was still recovering. "But he's suddenly decided to not listen. It's not allowed; you don't see me doing that!"

"You need to take your mind off this matter," her uncle said, making his way into the room and sitting down on the bed next to her. "And I know how."

Grethel turned to her uncle and gave him a doubtful look. The very concern of Wilhelmina's safety had been troubling her this entire time and wasn't about to stop anytime now. Nothing in the world could possibly take her mind off her little sis--

"I got a letter from your father," her uncle announced, making Grethel's jaw drop at first. She couldn't quite translate the words well in her head, but as soon as she did, Grethel felt happiness overcome her.

"Uh, I don't care," Grethel quickly said, turning her face away from her uncle. She bit her lower lip and tried to focus back on Wilhelmina but her mind kept wondering back to what her uncle had said.

_At least someone's not dead, _Grethel couldn't help but think. _But I want a letter from my mother! Not him!_

"Very well then," her uncle said, standing up. "I won't offer it for you to read. But try to tell your friend to tell Willie that your father is alive."

"Mmm…" Grethel said, showing that she had heard, but didn't really care. Her mind was worrying about Wilhelmina and her parents at the same time; which didn't exactly make her feel sociable right now.

* * *

**I'm going to try and wrap this up in the next 3-4 chapters (or less) if I can. But I seriously need you guys to remind me and nudge me if I'm forgetting to update. Then again, my last chapter wasn't exactly that great, was it?**

**And for those of you who are new to reading this or haven't reviewed, please review to tell me what you think so far. Even if it is only flaming.**


End file.
